


Mystic

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Series: Metaphysical [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Humor, Asian Stephen Strange, Awesome James "Rhodey" Rhodes, BAMF Tony Stark, BAMF Wong, Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), He from Nepal, I Don't Even Know, Insecure Tony, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Needs a Hug, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Minor James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Hope van Dyne, Platonic Soulmates, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Romantic Soulmates, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Stephen is an ass as usual, Tony Being Tony, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Wong is Awesome, and they LEARN, because that makes fucking SENSE, but so is Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-02-19 10:36:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 53,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13121976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Soul mate's names appear on their mate's skin. But the names aren't just the ones on their birth certificate- soul marks detailedeveryname your soul mate would ever receive throughout their lifetime.Tony’s soul mate is fucking stupid. This idiot used the name ‘Stephen Strange’ and ‘Dr. Strange’- both of which made sense- but then the final tattoo that liked to appear sometimes was fucking‘Sorcerer Supreme’. He decided from the moment he saw that embarrassing name he was one hundred percent never, ever going to give two shits about his dumbass soul mate.Stephen had rolled his eyessohard when ‘Iron Man’ flitted across his arm for the first time. Well, the first time he could read it. But the other names were interesting too- namely Tony Stark.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't really know what this was when I started it, but when I got it going it went in places I didn't expect and I don't actually mind it so.
> 
> I'm not entirely sure what this is but hey- it's here and I felt like giving you a holiday present (assuming you celebrate a holiday lol. If not it's just a regular gift (: ).

Tony’s soul mate is fucking stupid. This idiot used the name ‘Stephen Strange’ and ‘Dr. Strange’- both of which made sense- but then the final tattoo that liked to appear sometimes was fucking ‘ _Sorcerer Supreme_ ’. He decided from the moment he saw that embarrassing name he was one hundred percent never, _ever_ going to give two shits about his dumbass soul mate. Or at least not the romantic one- Rhodey was his platonic soul mate and he loved Rhodey dearly, even if he laughed out loud when ‘War Machine’ and ‘Iron Patriot’ appeared on his skin.

Once, when he and Rhodey were still kids, they talked about their tattoos and what they meant- Rhodey had been pretty confused by ‘Iron Man’ in particular but when they compared that with ‘Iron Patriot’ they figured it was something that involved them both. Why else would they both of them end up with names that have ‘iron’ in them? The others Rhodey had made sense given Tony’s profession- something Tony hadn’t ever entirely been comfortable with if he was honest- but it was ‘War Machine’ that threw them both for a loop. Rhodey hadn’t much liked the idea of being used as war propaganda, which is what he thought that was given his intention of joining the military but Tony hadn’t been so sure. When they finally got their answer to what the name meant Tony was more right than Rhodey though neither of them ever could have guessed at the truth.

In the end they moved on to their other names- which had led to Rhodey meeting his soul other mate because Tony happened to have gone to boarding school with Hope van Dyne. They’d been pretty confused about the Wasp thing until Hope clued them in on the Pym particle and she’d been enthused to learn that she got ahold of her mother’s old suit at some point. In hindsight that should have told Tony something about his ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ but it hadn’t.

When Rhodey found out about the Sorcerer though he had laughed, total traitor, as Tony sulked about it. They had come up with theories about that too- most of them revolving around Tony’s soul mate being some kind of weird kink person or a LARPer- but the actual explanation ends up being more boring than all of their theories.

*

Stephen had rolled his eyes _so_ hard when ‘Iron Man’ flitted across his arm for the first time. Well, the first time he could read it. But the other names were interesting too- namely Tony Stark- but Merchant of Death, da Vinci of our time, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, golden avenger, and the half a dozen other names flitted over his skin had him plain confused. In the end he decided to write his soul mate off because Tony Stark was clearly some kind of freak and Stephen hadn’t wanted anything to do with him.

Imagine his surprise years after he made his decision when he happened to be watching a press conference in which Tony revealed himself to be Iron Man. By then half the names Stephen saw on his skin had already been applied to Stark, but this one was the one that caught Stephen’s attention. Iron Man had been the most ridiculous, that and golden avenger, but now it had a real tangible place in the world that wasn’t wholly ridiculous. He had, for some time, toyed with the idea of trying to meet with Stark but then he got into an accident.

Christine, his platonic soul mate and fellow doctor, had done her best but there was only so much she could do when he refused to listen. Stephen had always been reckless, single minded, and determined to do everything his own way and after the accident those traits combined in the worst ways. There was nothing Christine could logically do to combat his obsession with his hands and eventually she had given up hope for him. That was about the time when Stephen hit rock bottom- _real_ rock bottom- and he had found the Sanctum with Tony Stark far from his mind.

*

Rhodey looks sadder than Tony has ever seen him. “At least take me with you,” he says, clinging to Tony’s wrist. He didn’t seem to be aware that he was doing that either. Hope looks shockingly calm about this whole thing- most people who had a soul mate who had another soul mate didn’t take it well. Those soul mates accounted for thirty percent of all homicides globally but neither Rhodey nor Tony were really the jealous type, at least not with each other. There was an understanding between them, something unspoken, that let them both know that they were forever dedicated to one another. Hope also seemed to understand that understanding and she left it be. Tony had to give her props for that, he wasn’t so sure he could manage.

“You aren’t ready to travel,” Tony tells Rhodey, “and you need to continue your physical therapy.” He had selfishly considered bringing Rhodey with him but he had shut that down quickly. Rhodey didn’t need his shit and he needed to recover after falling in part thanks to Tony’s problems but mostly due to fucking _Steve’s_. Most days Tony wished Barnes didn’t exist and not just because he killed Tony’s parents.

If he never existed half his problems in the last year and a half alone wouldn’t exist- Rhodey wouldn’t be paralyzed, Hope wouldn’t have to deal with all the bullshit Scott caused her, Steve and almost all of the rest of the Avengers wouldn’t be international _war criminals_ , the public might hate Tony less, and maybe Tony’s parents would still be alive. Hell, maybe even T’Challa’s father could have been saved too. But no, Barnes was here and Steve’s soul mate so the idiot did anything he could for him, including breaking so many international laws that Tony didn’t even bother to try and fix that mess. He’s T’Challa’s problem now. Sometimes he thought about the fact that, against all odds _he_ ended up being the one to support the government over Steve. When you broke so many rules the one who thought rules were meant to be broken sides with the law you _really_ had some issues but those issues were no longer Tony’s. He sent Steve’s letter and his phone back to wherever the hell he sent it from and Rhodey _still_ refused to let go of Tony Stank.

Point was after a year and a half in some sort of weird emotional limbo Tony knew he needed something, he just didn’t know what. So he decided that he might travel a little, do something with himself until he figured out what was missing. Leaving Rhodey behind wasn’t going to be easy though.

“Fuck the physical therapy,” Rhodey says, shaking his head. “I’ll be fine, take me with you.”

Hope finally reacts, meeting Tony’s eye and shaking her head ever so slightly. He hadn’t even needed to be told once let alone twice, there was no way he was bringing Rhodey with him on this mess of an adventure. “No. I don’t even know what I’m doing right now; I’m just doing… something. There’s no sense on bringing you on some kind of wild goose chase, Rhodey.”

“Tony, you’re going to get hurt doing something stupid,” Rhodey snaps, “you’re taking me with you!”

Judging from the look on Hope’s face Tony wasn’t the only surprised one in regards to that outburst. “And what are you going to do, Rhodey? You still aren’t used to being in a chair and you can barely walk _with_ the aide of technology let alone without it. No offense but what possible protection could you provide me?” If he were used to the way his body worked than yeah, Tony was positive Rhodey would have something worked out even if he had no idea what. But even with his time to adjust there were still things Rhodey was getting used to at least in part because of his work to try and get the use of his legs back. Had he just stuck to the chair Tony was sure he’d have more control by now but he was determined to recover as fast as possible and he did that by pushing himself. Probably too hard, too.

Rhodey liked to say that Tony was stubborn and that you couldn’t tell him anything but Rhodey was hands down worse. It was funny when they met because both of their parents thought the other was a bad influence. Tony had all these insane ideas and Rhodey liked to ignore rules as much as Tony did even if he tended to pick his battles more than Tony didn’t- it resulted in them doing a lot of stupid stuff. And Rhodey, he was so stubborn he apparently had plans to steal the helicopter he rescued Tony in in Afghanistan against his superior officer’s orders just because he apparently cared about Tony more than literally everything he’s spent his life working towards. Tony knew he was stubborn but he wasn’t sure he was willing to risk everything he worked for with no guarantee of getting it back over a lousy soul mate.

Now he guessed was no exception because Rhodey looked plenty prepared to fight him on this and hard. Hope gives Tony another look and he knows what she’s trying to tell him immediately. If Tony didn’t talk him down she couldn’t. “I’ll figure it out,” Rhodey tells him, “but I’m coming with you whether you like it or not.”

“Why are you being so difficult?” Tony asks, irritated with this. “I don’t need you to come with me, I’ll call when I get… wherever.”

“That isn’t the same and you know it. And I’m not being difficult, I’m just trying to look out for you,” Rhodey tells him.

Tony rubs his temples, “I know that but Rhodey I don’t need you to look out for me all the time. Frankly the last time that happened you broke your back,” he points out.

 _Better watch your back, he might break it_ …

Clint’s words go through his head and logically he knows its not his fault, it wasn’t anyone’s fault really. Sam happened to be behind Rhodey, Vision happened to be distracted by Wanda, and his attempt to hit Sam happened to go wide and hit Rhodey’s suit. No one meant for that to happen and no one was even supposed to be hurt by that- even Sam given that the shot was meant to turn his wings into little more than some metal to glide him back to the ground without their power, not kill him. The entire situation was a hot mess of decisions that no one predicted or they were circumstantial. Hell, in the end if anyone was really at fault it was Steve for going rogue but even that was beyond flimsy- that and it was a conclusion Clint would never come to. Knowing this did little to ease Tony’s guilt though not that he really elaborated on this to Rhodey either. He had his own problems; he didn’t need Tony making those problems about him.

Rhodey recoils from Tony’s words. “Is that what you think? _Seriously_? Is that why you’ve been so distant with me?” he asks and Tony rubs his temples again.

“It doesn’t matter, Rhodey, it’s fine,” he lies.

“Yes it _does_ matter because that wasn’t your fault, or anyone’s fault. You shouldn’t blame yourself for something no one could help,” he says.

So he knew. “I don’t, it’s fine,” Tony says again even if it wasn’t true. Only part of that had to do with Rhodey though, the rest had to do with him being… empty. He used to get joy out of inventing, building things. And then he built himself a suit of armor and got his fulfillment out of saving the world, but then he got bad at that and all but retired after the Accords. He no longer had his company- Pepper ran it and very well too, she’d been an excellent choice for CEO- he no longer got the same joy from inventing and lately it felt like a chore, and he felt… lost. When he thought about what made his life worth living his only answer was Rhodey and he couldn’t talk to anyone about it.

Pepper had reasonably asked for time away from him and he wasn’t going to tell Rhodey about these feelings, he’d be even more insistent on joining Tony on this weird adventure than he already was. He and Hope might be close, but not that close, so he was basically alone. He needed space from his normal life if he wanted to see anything change and he had the means to do it so he was going to. As it turned out not being an Avenger saved a lot of money, even if he still funded Peter Parker’s suits. The kid needed to be safe.

“Would you stop blatantly lying to my face, its insulting. You are not fine, something is going on with you and I am not going to let you do whatever it is you’re doing alone,” Rhodey says in a forceful tone. “I thought we already moved past this stupid lone wolf thing.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “I’m not trying to act like a lone wolf or… whatever. I’m trying to… I don’t know, gain perspective. It’s not that I don’t want you around or that I’m trying to act out a bad movie plot and do everything on my own- I just need some time okay. To myself.”

Rhodey considers him for a long moment, “and you’re going to do what, hmm? You don’t do well on your own, never have. You think I don’t know you, that I don’t know how you’ll react when people aren’t there to see what happens next? I do, Tony, and I’m not going to let you go off and fade into obscurity just because the Avengers are dicks.”

Hope lets out a snort that was obviously unintentional if her covering her mouth and clearing her throat was any indication. “Sorry. Its just… Tony doesn’t do obscurity, its not his style. Look, whatever it is he ends up doing it might not be so bad if he was on his own, Rhodey.”

That absolutely isn’t the right thing to say, Tony knows it before Hope even finishes her sentence so he jumps in to save her before Rhodey flames her ass and regrets it in the morning. “You’ve been there for me almost my whole life- definitely in the times that mattered most. I’ve been with you for the last year and a half and it hasn’t done much to help and not because I didn’t want it to. I need time Rhodey, time away from everything.”

“Time away from me,” Rhodey says, hurt.

“Time away from yet another reminder of how I’ve continued to fail over and over and over again no matter how hard I try not to,” Tony corrects. _Watch your back, he might break it_ … Clint’s words go though his head against his will again, like a painful loop that’s been on repeat since he said it. He knows that the statement was stupid and untrue, but it hurt nonetheless.

“None of this,” Rhodey gestures to the chair, “was your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” he repeats.

Tony sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I know that Rhodey, but I still need time by myself.” This wasn’t a decision made on a whim out of the blue- he’s learned his lesson from decisions like that. This was something he’s thought about for the better part of the last six months and now he was going through with it. There was nothing Rhodey could say to stop this from happening.

*

It had taken time, a lot of it, to convince Rhodey that he wasn’t coming with Tony to wherever he decided to go but eventually he manages. When it came to deciding where exactly he was going though it had been all but totally random. He had been toying with the idea of just buying himself a secluded island or something but when he had been scrolling through flights one to Nepal caught his eye.

*

Stephen, as usual, had been reading with his morning tea when he felt something shift. He looks over to Wong but he looks unconcerned as he worked on the morning crossword. “Did you feel that?” he asks. Sure, he was supposed to be the next Sorcerer Supreme but realistically Wong had more experience with magic even if Stephen had more raw talent. If something just happened he would know it.

Wong looks up in confusion though, “I didn’t feel anything. Are you sure that feeling you got wasn’t the sudden realization that putting sugar in your tea is an insult to the tea?” he asks and Stephen rolls his eyes. Typical.

“My tea is fine, thank you. I’m going to check it out though,” he says, _sure_ he felt something. He’s spent a lot of time in this Sanctum; he knew when something was off about it. If he got stuck dealing with another interdimensional being of some kind though he was not going to be happy though. He’s had his fill of those for the next several lifetimes.

He makes his way down the stairs; something stirring further in his gut to let him know that he was right- something _had_ just happened. He feels a slight pressure on his shoulders and notes that the Cloak of Levitation has made its presence known so he steels himself for a fight. Typically the cloak had other interests if he wasn’t in immediate danger.

What he finds at the bottom of the stairs, though, is a short man with yellow tinted sunglasses on looking up at the high ceilings of the Sanctum. “It’s quite pretty,” he says in English because he could basically smell the American on this one. Spend enough time in Nepal and you learn to recognize the tourists just like you could in New York.

The guy whirls around and Stephen almost says something stupid when he recognizes him but manages to keep his mouth shut. Tony Stark gives him a quizzical look, head tilted to the side before he asks, “are wearing a cape?”

Stephen automatically makes an offended noise. “It’s a _cloak_ ,” he says in his cloak’s defense.

Tony rolls his eyes, “cape. You look like low rent Asian Thor,” he says and Stephen sputters for a few moments before he’s interrupted by Wong’s laugh.

“I like you already. What brings you here?” he asks, walking past Stephen to Tony.

“I do _not_ look like low rent Thor! Thor only wishes his cape was this cool,” Stephen says, gently patting the cloak on his shoulder.

Tony gives him a triumphant look, “so it _is_ a cape. Ha! And uh, I don’t know. I just felt drawn here I guess. That sounds stupid, but the door was open,” he says.

Wong turns to Stephen, who already realized what just happened and why Wong hadn’t sensed anything. _He_ was the master of this Sanctum so only _he_ could recognize the lost, those that were in need of direction. He shakes his head at Wong, “absolutely not, he said my cloak was a cape.”

“In my defense,” Tony says, “he also said his cloak was a cape.”


	2. Chapter 2

When he had been lost the Ancient One- Stephen didn’t envy the person who had _that_ on their body- had taken him in and shown him magic. That hadn’t been something he thought possible at the time but Tony Stark already knew about magic, and maybe even more than Stephen when it came to gods. He’s only read about them- he didn’t count his very brief experience with Thor and Loki as anything teachable- Tony has actually fought them and fought with them. Trying to help the man wasn’t going to be an easy task but judging from the very irritated look on Wong’s face he didn’t care what Stephen thought of his new task, it was his job to complete it.

“You felt drawn here,” Stephen says, curious about that. He hadn’t felt drawn anywhere even when he was in the area and unlike Tony he had an actual history with Nepal. Before his grandparents immigrated to America they lived in the country- which was part of why he chose to come here to begin with. There were Sanctums all over the world- and at some point it was his goal to get back to New York- but for now he remained here because this was the one he chose to go to. He had for some reason thought maybe accessing his cultural roots would help but when he got here he had realized fast that he had no real connection to Nepal outside of his race and promptly got robbed. Needless to say he had hit rock bottom when Mordo found him and brought him to the Ancient One, but he wasn’t entirely sure Tony had hit his bottom.

Usually that’s what happened when people were lost- they had nowhere to turn but Tony had several options so why did he end up _here_? He would have preferred to deal with someone who was… well not his soul mate. It’s been almost two years since he’s given Tony any thought and Stephen certainly didn’t know what to do with him now. For a second he entertains the thought of Tony being drawn here because of him specifically but he dismisses it on account of him feeling no real draw to Tony. He’s heard all the stories, he’s even read on soul mate magic, but with Tony standing right in front of him he didn’t feel anything special at all and it was clear Tony didn’t either, or at least that his feelings weren’t directed at Stephen.

“Yeah, drawn here. Like… well if I believed in auras I’d say whatever it is that’s around this place drew me to it,” Tony says, looking back up at the architecture that surrounded them. It was beautiful, Stephen knew.

“Auras are real. Follow me,” he says and he turns on his heel, fully expecting Tony to follow him. Stephen gets the feeling Tony only keeps up because he wants to argue.

“They are not. Do you seriously believe in that mystical shit over science?” he asks, struggling to keep up with Stephen’s long legs. Their height difference was almost amusing. It would probably take a Tony and a half to make one Stephen. He glances down at Tony and realizes that wasn’t actually much of an exaggeration.

He smiles because he’s wanted to do this since it was done to him. He spins on his heel to face Tony, who almost runs into him. “I used to be a doctor- a scientist. I know the value of science and yes, I believe in magic- god knows why you don’t with the abundance of evidence around you,” he mumbles.

“I believe in magic, it’s auras and chakras I don’t believe in,” he says and Stephen smiles.

“You will,” he says and he hits Tony’s chest, sending his astral form out of his physical form. He imagines Tony acts much like he had- arms flailing around with a stupid look on his face. Stephen was impressed that he managed to retain his sunglasses in his astral form too.

Stephen gracefully projects himself out of his physical body to float beside Tony. He watches as his physical body reaches out and catches Tony before he falls on his ass but Tony, who can’t really feel the difference between the physical and the spiritual yet, mostly acts as a rag doll in Stephen’s arms. “What the _fuck_?” Tony asks, arms and legs still flailing around as he tried to find some kind of purchase in a world that allowed none.

“Welcome to the astral world- bet you hadn’t believed in that either. But if you’re wondering several of your chakras are out of balance and you’re feeling it. You have been for a long, _long_ time,” he says, circling Tony. Tony looks annoyed with Stephen’s control. “You said you felt lost, and that you were drawn here in particular. I suggest you stop telling me what’s real and fake and _learn_.” He stops behind Tony and hits his back, right between the shoulder blades, to push him back into his body.

He gracefully slides back into his physical body and lets go of Tony, who begins to wiggle around immediately. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he snarls.

“Be lucky I didn’t drop you through five hundred various dimensions as I gave that speech. That’s what I got,” he mumbles, “now lets go.”

*

Tony fucking _hated_ Stephen. He was a pompous, arrogant _prick_ who apparently knew how to disconnect what he guessed was his fucking soul or something from his _body_ and he didn’t like it. And now they were standing in the middle of a goddamn library while Stephen’s stupid _cape_ decided it was a good idea to investigate Tony.

He tries to wave the damn thing off but it smacks him back as it settles on his shoulders. Stephen looks so offended that Tony almost decides this is acceptable. “What is this thing doing? I am I being felt up by a _cape_?” he asks as he tries unsuccessfully to swat the thing off of him.

“Cloak,” Stephen corrects, “and no. To be honest I don’t know what it’s doing but that’s not new. No one ever knows what that cloak is up to.”

The cloak _lifts_ for a moment and Tony squeaks as his feet lift from the ground. “Call it off!” he yells but Stephen just gives the stupid cape an irritated glance.

“Seriously?” he says to the _cloak_. Tony decides not to complain too much because it sets him back down. “Now wander. I want to see where you stop,” Stephen tells him, sounding like a fucking mystical fortune cookie. Or a bad fortune teller. Either way Tony keeps his words to himself because he’s certain that his face gives away his feelings. He’s never been good at hiding his emotions.

When Tony doesn’t move Stephen shoos him off and he rolls his eyes, heading down the massive halls of the library. Books- Tony loved them though he had recently developed a preference for eBooks. Most of the time they meant learning and even when he read for pleasure Tony has long since realized his favorite genre, science fiction, was ripe with ideas for inventions. He’s lifted ideas straight from books and made them reality more than once and it felt exhilarating every time.

These books, though, were all magic oriented. The section he steps into first is dedicated to gods and other beings from different dimensions and he skips those basically immediately. He had no interest in any of that stuff. The next section he ends up in is chakras, which makes him roll his eyes so he moves on. He passes through a section on runes, water, weapons, and life before he stops, unsure what he was looking at. The cape, cloak, whatever it was had taken off at some point and when Stephen appears by his side he finds the stupid thing back on it’s master’s shoulders.

“Time,” Stephen says and Tony is entirely unsurprised. “What is it about time that calls to you?” he asks.

Tony snorts, “how the fuck do I know?” he asks. “Isn’t that your job?”

Stephen’s lips quirk up. “No, only you know why time is the magic you’re drawn to. It drew me too, for a time,” he says in an almost sad tone as he glances up at the tombs.

“Time always seems to work against me,” he says after a few long, heavy moments.

“Time works against everyone,” Stephen says. “And time magic is dangerous. I’m not entirely surprised you were drawn to it.”

He isn’t sure why he’s offended by that but he is, “what’s that supposed to mean?” he asks.

“It means you like high risk, high payoff situations. That’s what you’ve done your whole life and time magic will be more of the same- I’d know, I was the same way. But you’re here because you want something different, because you’re looking for a change. Find something else that draws you,” Stephen says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“‘Find something that draws you Tony- oh, but not that thing’,” he says in a mocking tone, rolling his eyes and almost turning around before a book catches his eye. He thinks Stephen responds to him but he ignores him in favor of walking over to the shelf and pulling a book down.

“Defensive magic?” Stephen asks, frowning.

“There a problem with this too?” Tony asks, flipping through the pages. “Is it possible for me to learn this stuff?”

“Its possible for everyone, technically,” Stephen says. “Though I’m surprised you went to _that_. It’s largely considered a feminine magic.”

Tony glares at him for a moment before grabbing several more books and walking off with them. Feminine magic his ass, it was _magic_ , how the hell could it be feminine? The cloak, Tony notes, flutters over to him and settles on his shoulders as he walks out of the library. He earns a very odd look from the guy who greeted him when he first got there as he leaves.

*

“The cloak-” Wong starts but Stephen waves him off.

“It’s a non issue,” he says because he was sure that it was.

Wong shakes his head, “you don’t understand, once an object has chosen a person they don’t just choose new people. That isn’t how it’s done.”

He’s gone into Teacher Mode but Stephen already new that. “The cloak didn’t…” he cuts himself off and sighs. “Would the presence of a soul mate change how the cloak behaves?” he asks.

Wong frowns for a moment before a light goes off in his head and he realizes what Stephen has told him. “Its possible though not probable, does he know?” he asks.

Stephen shakes his head, “no and I’d like it to stay that way. I don’t think he’ll learn from me if he knows.” The excuse is flimsy and Wong knows it too but he leaves it for a moment.

“Secret keeping is never a good idea, Stephen,” Wong tells him, shaking his head.

“He is _lost_ , the last thing he needs is another problem to solve. He should focus on the magic- on _himself_. It is painfully obvious he had done little of that for a long time,” Stephen says, shocked to find how much he genuinely believed that. Not to mention the levels of suspicion radiating off of Tony spoke about a whole new level of problems he had to work though.

At this Wong softens a little. “That isn’t your choice to make, Stephen, and you know it. We’ve both seen what happens when people make bad choices with good intentions- don’t go down the same path she did,” he says softly. They both know who he means.

He sighs, “its not something I intend to keep from him forever, Wong. It’s not even a secret really- I just don’t think he needs something else to deal with right now. He’ll find out when he’s ready- just like everything else that’s about to happen to him.” For a moment- only a moment- Stephen sees everything perfectly clear. The future is laid out for him in an obvious, linear path that he knows is subject to change at any moment but he sees himself with Tony laughing. The feeling is hard to describe, but he knows they’re both happy and in a stunning bout of clarity he knows he isn’t happy now. He shakes his head because soul mates don’t bring happiness and fulfillment- he has never bought that narrative and he never would. Soul mates were people just like everyone else, not magical cure-alls to life’s problems.

“What did you see?” Wong asks, clearly picking up on Stephen’s odd vision-like experience.

He shakes his head, “nothing I believe to be true,” he says. He goes to leave the room, walking past Wong but Wong grabs his arm.

“Soul mate magic is a powerful force and it isn’t easily tamed. Both you and Stark have combative, fierce personalities. You’re playing with fire and you know it,” Wong tells him.

Stephen can’t help the smile that comes to his face. “Playing with fire was always where I felt the most comfortable,” he says. And, he thinks to himself, its always where Tony felt the most comfortable too. At least until they inevitably got burned.

*

Tony hears footsteps echoing behind him but it’s the cloak’s removing itself from Tony’s shoulders that alerts him to who it was. The cloak showed no affiliation with anyone but Stephen, bothering Tony aside. “You’re reading,” Stephen notes, rounding the table Tony was sitting at.

He sits back in his seat, “yeah, so?”

Stephen smiles just a little, “it took me longer than this to accept magic,” he says.

“I already knew magic was real, I’ve seen it.” Been a victim to it too. Stephen asked why he had been attracted to time and he hadn’t known. He did know why he was attracted to defensive magic though. After his history with the subject who wouldn’t be attracted to it?

“But you’re reading on it. Believing it’s real is different than actively trying to educate yourself on the subject,” he says. “What are you reading?”

Tony nods at the cape that was, oddly, using the high collar to brush a strand of loose hair out of Stephen’s face. He notes that Stephen has a little grey on the sides but it doesn’t make him look older or even aged. It almost looked purposeful, like he dyed it that way but no professional could ever achieve something that looked that natural. He’s actually quite attractive with sharp features and an astute gaze that suggests he’s observant and intelligent. He’s Tony’s type was what he was but he ignores that in favor of watching the cape. Stephen is obviously used to the cape doing things like brushing his hair out of his face though because he doesn’t even flinch when it reaches out for the loose strands.

“That cloak. Not much on it though,” he says. Stephen notes the pile of books off to Tony’s left, considering them for a moment.

“Out of curiosity did you read all of those front to back?” he asks, leaning forward with interest.

“Yeah. I can read fast though I haven’t really done that much reading in one sitting for some time.” The last time he researched a subject this in depth was right before he met the Avengers and he had read all of Bruce’s research as well as several other experts in his field. The man was _brilliant_ and Tony still wanted to pick his brain. Research that he’s done after that was sparse- he’s done some, but not as much as he’d like.

Stephen looks impressed and Tony wants to tell him not to be. He developed speed-reading skills as a child in an attempt to retain information faster to impress Howard whenever he applied that learning elsewhere. Obviously that never happened, but the skill hadn’t come easily and Tony worked harder to develop the skill while he was in school. Getting through his readings and assignments faster meant more time to do whatever it was he wanted to do. Usually something with Rhodey. In the end he retained the skill and by now it wasn’t really something to write home about.

“I can’t read that fast, though I technically don’t class as a genius either. A genius in my field, yes, but in general no,” he says.

Tony laughs, “that skill didn’t come from my genius. I taught myself how to read fast because it was a useful skill. I have seven PhDs so you can imagine the amount of reading I had to do. What field though- the one you’re considered a genius in,” he clarifies. “You mentioned something about being a doctor.”

“I was a neurosurgeon and I loved it. I miss it every day,” he says, looking surprisingly sad about this. Tony can almost _feel_ Stephen’s desolate isolation and his longing to go back to surgery. He has to actually shake his head to rid himself of the feeling.

“Why not go back to it if you miss it that much? I don’t think you’re being held hostage here,” Tony says.

Stephen shakes his head, confirming Tony’s words. “I’m not, but I can’t go back to surgery,” he says and lifts his hands. The tremor was slight but even the slightest tremor in surgery was more than a little risky.

“That’s unfortunate,” Tony says. It comes out flippant and, to his surprise, Stephen doesn’t react with mild or even outright offense like most. Instead he nods.

“So it is. But you get dealt with what life hands you whether or not you like it.” Yeah, so Tony knew.

“How is it that you got here? And why _magic_?” Tony asks. This was all so… he had no word for it honestly. After everything that’s happened to him in the last decade this was probably the most normal and he was talking to a dude that basically believed in auras. If he told himself this was where he’d be in two decades at twenty-five he would have laughed in his own face and told himself to fuck off. But then there was very little he’d understand of his life now in his youth, and there wasn’t much of his youth that he understood now.

“I was looking for a cure for my hands. Surgery was my life, still would be if I were selfish, and I blew through every dollar I had trying to find some way to fix my perceived problem. This was my last option and it worked, just not the way I thought it would. How’d you end up here? People usually only end up here when they hit bottom,” Stephen says and Tony smiles without any kind of humor. Being rich, he thought, gave people an odd level of assumptions in regards to his happiness. Only Rhodey and Yinsen had ever understood his position though Rhodey had a point when he said most people had their assumptions because money really would solve their problems. It was easy, he said, to say money didn’t buy happiness when money wasn’t the source of your ills. Tony sort of wished money _did_ buy happiness though because he had more than he needed of one thing and none of the other.

“I am at bottom,” Tony says, surprised at how sad he sounds. “I’ve always hated something about my life, or myself, and usually it was pretty much everything but I thought… After Afghanistan I thought I could do something, that that would make my life worth living. It did for a little while but eventually I screwed up my relationship with Pepper, I started to suck as a hero and then nearly ended the world, I ruined the team of superheroes that was tasked with trying to stop bad shit from happening mostly due to me in particular _making_ bad shit happen, and I almost got my best friend killed. I knew a guy once, Yinsen- he once told me I was a man with everything and nothing. I don’t think that’s ever been more true than it is right now.”

To his surprise Stephen reaches out and squeezes Tony’s arm. “Its hard when you put all your sense of self into one thing only to lose the thing you define yourself though. I know that better than most. If magic has taught me anything though its that possibilities are everywhere and failure? Sometimes that’s the best way to save the world. Trust me on that one,” he says.

There’s a brief flash of something in Tony’s mind’s eye, mostly just a flash of color, but then it’s gone and he frowns. “Is failure really the best way to do anything?” he asks.

Stephen smiles, “failing is the easiest way to learn. If you do everything right all the time you have no room for growth. If you consistently fail you know where you need to improve and you’ve got several starting points. Find one you want to start with tomorrow,” Stephen tells him. He stands, giving Tony’s arm another gentle squeeze and he walks away, leaving Tony there alone for a brief second before Stephen’s cape appears in the doorway Stephen had just walked out of. It seems to stare at Tony for a moment before it darts away, presumably after Stephen.


	3. Chapter 3

Stephen finds Tony in the library surrounded by books and smiles almost against his will. Tony looks sleep mussed and concentrated on the words in front of him as he absently taps his foot. “Clearly you’ve chosen a focus,” he says as he sits across from Tony. He almost disappears behind the books and Stephen barely suppresses a laugh at Tony’s short stature.

“Chakras. None of this makes sense,” he says and he leans back in his seat.

“What about it doesn’t make sense?” Stephen asks. He remembered when he did this- it hadn’t been a particularly fun process. Nothing made any sense because he was trying to find a certain kind of logic that simply didn’t exist when it came to magic. Things weren’t linear the way regular sciences were, and frankly half the concepts were flat out absurd. It had been hard for him to reconcile basic logic with the mystical and he was certain Tony would be the same. They had quite a bit in common- this seemed like a natural extension of their similarities.

Tony leans forward and pulls a few books from his stack, setting them out of the way so his whole face was visible, not just most of it. “Chakras are… energy? Mystical energy? This is all fucking ridiculous- what’s next? Telling me to sit in the sun to balance them or some other nonsensical solution to a fake problem?” he asks, rolling his eyes.

“You aren’t paying close enough attention to what you’re reading,” Stephen tells him, getting a dirty look for his efforts. “You’re reading these texts like they’re an extension of popular culture conceptions of chakras. They aren’t, and sunlight doesn’t balance your crown chakra. Balance means acceptance and that doesn’t come easily for most,” he says. It certainly didn’t come easily for him and something was always somewhat off. That was relatively normal though- perfect balance was unachievable because it implied that there was nothing new to learn, that there were no improvements to be made and that wasn’t a space anyone could ever get to. But knowing how to balance your failures, your successes, your knowledge, and your need to learn did wonders for achieving some kind of stability even if something was bound to fall off-kilter for a time. Tony clearly had no balance for any of those things.

“‘Acceptance’,” Tony repeats, letting out a snort. “Okay, sure. And that’ll magically fix all my problems?” he asks sarcastically.

Stephen resents having to teach these things to someone who was so much like himself because he now knew how annoying he was. “No. Perfect balance isn’t possible to maintain and you’re still confusing pop culture with actual magic. Balanced chakras make it easier to learn magic, to access what you’re truly capable of- it doesn’t magically cure all your problems. It certainly helps due to the nature of the way chakras work, but figuring out the best method for finding balance won’t mean you’re in danger of farting rainbows and sunshine.”

While Tony considers how to respond to that Stephen thinks up about five dozen questions to ask Wong about how he learned because the information might be useful in helping Tony come to terms with magic. If he was truly meant to be here at all.

“Why bother with the chakras? You said it makes magic easier but how?” he asks, giving Stephen a shrewd stare.

He shrugs, “like anything else your performance suffers if your mind is elsewhere. The more preoccupied you are the less you focus on the magic and how to work it. Humans have a hard enough time accessing magic, no sense in making it harder on ourselves.” They weren’t, or at least Stephen’s research suggests they weren’t, predisposed to magic usage- unlike the gods Tony has worked with. Humans had no access to the world outside their own unless they had discipline, practice, and a focus item if they were making portals. It was far harder for humans to see beyond what their eyes offered but Stephen has always loved a challenge.

“And if the chakras are unbalanced? Like severely seems how they don’t really maintain balance?” Tony asks.

“Then you’ll have a difficult time with magic. It won’t be impossible, but it’ll be far more difficult than necessary.” It was funny- mostly balanced chakras made no real difference in his life, but when they weren’t suddenly everything magical was ten times more demanding. It was an easy gauge to know when he needed to address something.

“So why me, then? I’m guessing that there’s some sort of _mystical_ reason I’m here,” Tony says sarcastically but Stephen shrugs.

“If there is one I can’t see it. But I wasn’t drawn here like you were- I was brought here by someone who saw potential in me. For all I know my job is to find that potential in you, or maybe there’s some other purpose for your presence here. Or it could be dumb luck. I doubt it’s that but it could be,” he says.

“Are some people naturally better at magic than others?” Tony asks, apparently taking a turn in subject.

Stephen laughs, “of course there are. Wong has been practicing magic far longer than I have but I’m much better at it- hence why _I’m_ the one leading this institution, not him.” Not that Stephen necessarily agreed with that. He still consulted Wong often- it would make more sense for him to lead even if Stephen was more magically equipped for dealing with a threat.

“Do you think I’d be any good at it? Magic, I mean,” Tony says even though they both know what he meant.

“Absolutely,” Stephen says immediately. He hadn’t planned on answering that fast or with as much conviction as he had but he finds he doesn’t regret the words. Tony, he thinks, will be fantastic at magic just as soon as he learned not to be so stubborn and set in his ways.

Tony nods after a brief, tense moment. “So where are you from? Because I’m about ninety percent sure that’s a Manhattan accent,” he says.

Stephen lets out an annoyed sigh, irritated that he couldn’t even escape the ‘where are you from?’ question even here where his race was mostly irrelevant. “I’m from New York yes, and I lived in Manhattan for years, which would explain the accent,” he tells Tony.

*

“I’ve explained this _several_ times,” Stephen tells one of the few other students at the Sanctum.

“You said to put the ring on, hold your hand forward, and draw a circle. How the hell is that helpful?” the student asks.

“Because that is literally what you do to make a portal. I can’t possibly dumb that down any further, so why are you complaining?” Stephen asks. The student turns away from Stephen but the eye roll was so dramatic Tony could see it clear across the courtyard.

There weren’t a lot of other people at the Sanctum but Tony quickly gathers that Stephen has little patience for questions, especially if they questioned his authority. He wonders if this is what it must have been like to deal with himself before Iron Man and realizing that maybe just about everything about himself was a character flaw. Actually that last bit hadn’t really changed much over the years.

“He’s an _awful_ teacher,” Wong says, appearing beside Tony and shaking his head as they watch Stephen give someone a glare with enough annoyance in the facial expression that Tony would just up and quit if he were on the receiving end of the look.

“No shit,” Tony says. “Even I’m better than this and I’m not a good teacher at all.” Unlike Stephen though he actually tried even if his attempts at monitoring Peter’s actions didn’t go well. He had Rhodey keeping an eye on him because that kid has a death wish and _someone_ needed to make sure he didn’t do something stupid and Happy proved incompetent at it. He probably shouldn’t have expected much from him anyways, they’ve only had a million conversations about how annoying kids were and Peter technically counted as a child. But he at least attempted to be good for the kid- Stephen was just embarrassingly bad at trying to teach because he kept repeating the same advice and getting annoyed when his students, if you could call them that, didn’t understand. “Who put him in charge?” Tony asks, somewhat amused by this.

Wong sighs, “he’s better at magic than I am, therefore he sits higher on the food chain. That and there were some other… circumstances that left him as the successor to the last master that was here.”

Circumstances? Stephen has said a few things that alluded to something happening but Tony kept tabs on all things weird and Asia as a whole seemed to be spared from weird incidences. Almost everywhere else has had at least a small incident of something going on there but Asia had basically nothing. But then everyone that wasn’t America has had almost nothing happen to them minus that one time with Thor in London. Tony was honestly annoyed that America was the alien magnet and had been pleased to come to a country on a continent where there were no alien problems only to find out something happened but he didn’t know what. Apparently running away from his problems was not a good solution given that they always seemed to find him.

“Hm. Why does magical power even matter? Stephen might have talent but it obviously doesn’t extend beyond magic,” Tony says.

His comment earns him a laugh from Wong, “I like you. You’re less of an ass than Stephen,” he says. “But having a higher power level means you can track progress and potential much better than the average magic user. I have skills in magic but Stephen can work extremely powerful spells without breaking a sweat. It’s like… the difference between the average engineer and you. The average engineer can be good, great even, but still wouldn’t compare to your raw ability let alone the skill you acquired after that.”

The explanation was more useful than anything Stephen would have provided. He probably would have done a lot of eye rolling and huffing at being asked for an explanation like he was currently doing with his group of clearly frustrated students. “I think an exception should be made, he’s genuinely terrible at this,” Tony says, nodding to the students.

“Why don’t you do ask some questions, you’re more personable,” Wong explains when Tony gives him a confused look.

Yeah, Tony didn’t agree but he walks over anyways because he, unlike Stephen’s other students, wasn’t easy to shut up. “So what the hell is the purpose of this ring thing? Doesn’t look special to me,” he says honestly, examining the ring on Stephen’s fingers. It was actually pretty ugly- and why did the god-awful thing have to go on two fingers? Ugh. His aversion could be related to the fact that wearing rings in his line of work wasn’t exactly ideal, but then Stephen’s previous career meant no rings at all so maybe that wasn’t it. Maybe it was just that the ring was so unattractive- like a small plank slapped on a couple circles. Either way it looked utterly unremarkable.

Stephen rolls his eyes at him, “as I’ve explained like _twelve_ times already it acts as a focus item,” he says.

“Focus between what and what? That’s useless information with no context,” Tony tells him, hands on his hips.

“Between the magic in the user and the external magic around the user- I’ve already said this,” Stephen tells him.

“No you haven’t. How’s it connect to either of those things? Looks like an ugly piece of wood on some metal rings to me,” Tony says.

“You are _very_ irritating,” Stephen tells him. “But the rings are constructed from materials in various dimensions, hence the ability to connect with several different physical spaces, and the contact with the user acts as something of a conduit for the user’s internal magic. The ring makes the actual connection between the physical spaces and the user so they can step through. As I’ve explained,” he says.

Tony snorts, amused with Stephen’s clear inability to judge his own skill set. “Okay- so if this ring is made from materials from various dimensions how did you get the materials to make it if you need the ring to get the materials?” he asks.

Stephen squints at him, “did you essentially ask me what came first- the chicken or the egg?”

“Basically. So how’d it happen?” The small crowd was now gathered closely around, clearly interested in Stephen’s answers but mostly they were amused by Tony’s easy interactions with him, frustration be damned.

“Other beings with different magical means likely brought the materials here and humans made use of them. Not unlike quite a lot of the alien technologies people have been using,” he says. All enjoyment he was getting from the conversation drops with the mention of aliens and he sighs.

“Cool, still ugly as sin though,” he says, spinning on his heel to leave but Stephen calls him back.

“You asked all these questions, but don’t want to test to see if it works yourself? You’re a better scientist than _that_ ,” Stephen says in an almost… playful tone. He holds a ring out to Tony with a coy smile, clearly expecting him to test this thing.

He considers just walking away anyways, just because it’d be such an asshole move, but he actually was curious so he tentatively takes the ring and puts it on. “So how’s this ugly ass thing supposed to work?” he asks, looking down at the ring.

“Are you left handed?” Stephen asks and Tony frowns.

“No. I mean technically I’m ambidextrous, but I favor my right,” he says. Using both hands equally well meant he got his work done faster, but given the chance he did everything with his right.

Stephen laughs, “then you have the ring on the wrong hand. Switch and hold your left out in front of you,” he tells Tony.

Tony follows his instructions more to see what would happen than anything. “Now take your right hand and draw a circle with it- imagine a place you want to go. Something you can imagine vividly,” Stephen tells him.

The first place to come to mind, thanks to the earlier mention of aliens, was the wormhole. Tony draws the circle, fully expecting nothing to happen but he’s surprised when sparks fly in the air in front of him. He jumps back out of shock and Stephen laughs, “no keep going, you’re doing great,” he says. The offering of encouragement must be new given how shocked the crowd looked. So he lifts his hands again and lets the residual fear of the wormhole guide his actions as the sparks fly again. It takes a few revolutions but something starts to appear in the sparks. With two more passes of his hand the image was clear enough to see, but still somewhat foggy. That’s when the crowd starts to murmur.

“Tony, where is that?” Stephen asks, his voice sounding a little strange to Tony or maybe that was the ringing in his ears.

“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. His own voice sounds odd too- haunted. “Its what I saw in New York.” He feels more than sees Stephen step in; doing something that closes the portal or whatever that was as he steps in close.

“Are you alright?” Stephen asks, genuine concern written all over his features and his tone.

Tony looks up at him, seeing Stephen’s dark eyes examining his features but it was like he was looking through someone else’s vision even though he wasn’t. “I don’t know,” he says honestly, feeling his mouth move and hearing his words, but the actions were alien to him- like someone else was using his body to respond the way he wanted to.

“I don’t think you are. Go lay down, Wong will take you,” Stephen says. He has to physically turn Tony to face Wong before he realizes he was supposed to move. Wong graciously takes over guiding Tony away.

*

Wong knew about the affects mental health could have on magic but he’d never seen it before now, not like this anyways. Tony’s reaction- and something triggered why he chose New York even if Wong wasn’t entirely sure _what_ it was- was so strong that even the novices felt the change in the air. Stephen certainly had given his own skill but Tony’s natural talent distracted both him and Stephen until it was too late. By the time they realized the shift they both felt when Tony accessed the magic to make the portal was generated out fear, not a high affinity for magic, the damage was done. Whatever was on the other end of that portal wasn’t something anyone was meant to see and Wong was shaken. He couldn’t imagine how Tony felt actually being _in_ that space for a time, let alone recreating it in a portal.

Novices were never that good, both he and Stephen should have known right away that something was off but Wong blamed himself. Stephen was clearly distracted and enamored by Tony- it was _his_ job to ensure that Stephen’s transition into his new role went smoothly, and that he had the proper skill to be the Sorcerer Supreme. This was his failing over Stephen’s- he was the one who had more experience to know that something wasn’t right and he failed to recognize that simply because he had been amused by Tony’s pestering Stephen and then curious about his magic. This was not something he could allow again and now that he knew what Stephen must have sensed about Tony’s mental state he will watch him more closely.

“Sorry,” Tony says eventually, looking up from his spot in a library chair. He was at home in a space with books, something Wong certainly related to, and he thought the familiar and favored environment would help calm Tony. He hadn’t been wrong.

Wong frowns, “sorry for what?” he asks.

“For making… whatever the hell that was. I didn’t… I didn’t know that would happen.” Tony doesn’t look at him as he speaks and Wong can hear how tired he is in the way he talks, and he can see how tired he is in the way he slumps in his seat.

“You couldn’t have predicted that- neither Stephen nor I predicted that and we’re experts in our field, Tony. There is no need to apologize for something that we missed- that _I_ missed. We should have known right away something was off when we felt the way the air changed.”

Tony looks up then, somewhat surprised but the curiosity in his expression is what Wong takes notice of. It was easy to see why he was Stephen’s soul mate- he had been just as inquisitive when he first started learning too. “The way the air changed?” he asks.

He nods. “When you reach master levels like I have, and like Stephen is growing into, you will be able to feel the magic around you. We both felt a surge in magic when you began but both of us foolishly thought that it was natural talent. Stephen wouldn’t know better but I would- no student is ever that good on the first try without a reason and your immediate grasp was linked to a traumatic event. I… maybe I thought it was talent because of who you are- how gifted you usually are. It doesn’t matter now- I should have known right away something was off and I’m sorry for allowing that to continue,” he says.

It was his job; after all, to make sure that things like this didn’t happen. He’d talk to Stephen later about what to look for if this sort of thing happened again with Tony, or anyone else, again. Stephen might be awful at teaching but his skill at detecting magic is excellent- this was something he’d have no problem picking up on. The rest of the skills he needed as a teacher… well, time would tell if he’d learn those Wong supposed.

“I… this isn’t your fault, I should have imagined something else,” Tony says, shaking his head in annoyance though it was obvious that the annoyance was directed at himself.

“I don’t have much experience with what looks to be PTSD but I do know just focusing on something else isn’t exactly how things work. We’re the magical experts here, it’s _our_ job to know what is going on in our student’s heads and how to train them with that in mind,” he tells Tony.

He snorts, “Stephen is terrible at it. He seems to assume everyone knows as much as he does and then gets annoyed when they ask for the finer details because he thinks he already told them when he didn’t. He just knows that stuff and expects them to too.” Yes, so Wong knew. It has been slow going at _best_ to try and teach Stephen how not to assume everyone knew as much as he did but he wasn’t any better at listening than he was at teaching.

“That’s why I sent you in. I saw right away in the library the other day that he reacts well to you, that he actually takes the time to answer your questions. By actually teaching you he’d teach everyone else too.” Wong wasn’t sure if that was because Stephen saw himself in Tony or it was an unconscious affect of being his soul mate but either way he was prepared to capitalize on it for the sake of the other students. It was likely the only way they’d ever learn thanks to Stephen’s stubborn nature. His being completely unaware of his faults was easily his worst trait- or worse, when he was aware of them and thought those flaws were good things. Like his fear of failure- he thought that fear fueled him and made him better, but what it did was focus him on cases he knew he could solve rather than branching out.

Tony might actually have the opposite problem. Soul mates were about balance- Tony’s fear made him reach out into the unknown without thinking things through and unsurprisingly bad things came back with him. He could learn from Stephen’s unconscious caution and Stephen could learn from Tony’s willingness to reach out into unexpected places for solutions. Granted Stephen was further on his journey to balance than Tony was. Wong didn’t need magic to tell him Tony had no stability in his life right now and that he was desperately seeking some, not unlike Stephen when he first got here.

“Why does he react better to me than anyone else?” Tony asks. Wong clenches his jaw for a moment, tempted to spill Stephen’s secret but it wouldn’t be right to do so. That, and it wasn’t his place to tell him this sort of thing anyways. That would be Stephen’s job, and he could explain why he had stupidly held back crucial information from Tony too. Stupid, that’s what Stephen was, but Wong would leave him to clean up his own mess. It wasn’t in his interest to babysit Stephen through his bad life choices unless they had something to do with magic directly.

“Because you’re like him, I think. He must see a little of himself in you and for some reason it makes him more open to what you have to say,” Wong says. He didn’t know how true that was but Tony should get some kind of answer even if Stephen wasn’t willing to give him one, or at least not the most accurate one.

Tony nods and takes a deep, shaky breath. “Thank you,” he says after a moment and Wong shakes his head.

“Don’t thank me- I made a mistake today and at a great cost to you. I don’t deserve a thanks.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh yes, another chapter! I should be working on this sucker more, but I recently started another thing and got sucked into that lol.

Tony hears a knock on the door of his room and he gets up to investigate mostly out of obligation than anything. When he opens the door though Stephen is standing there with several books in his arms. “Uh… I uh… haven’t ever seen anything like what you did earlier. I thought maybe you might want answers as much as I did so I took the liberty of finding some books to look over. If you wanted to,” he adds somewhat hastily.

For a moment Tony considers turning him down, saying that he’s had enough of magic for the day and probably his whole lifetime but something about the hopeful look Stephen gives him has him pulling his door open wider and gesturing him in. “To be honest I’m not much interested in answers,” he says, earning an odd look from Stephen as he drops the books on the desk in the corner of the room.

“Why not? All you’ve been doing since you’ve got here is ask questions,” he points out. True, Tony thinks, but there were some things that didn’t need prodding at. When he tells Stephen this though he shakes his head. “I don’t accept that. You’re an innovator, a scientist. Its your _job_ to poke at things no one else will.”

He snorts, “when it starts costing you your sanity then it stops being worth it,” Tony tells him.

“It wasn’t magic that did that. Well, not this time. You have thin traces of magic around you, which I’d attribute to Wanda Maximoff’s magic if it wasn’t around your mind. Loki maybe, though I didn’t think magical traces could last that long. But then I don’t really have that much access to gods and the one time I did nothing special happened.” Nothing special? Ran into gods? Tony decides to leave it in favor of answering Stephen’s half asked question. He supposes its natural to feel drawn to someone else’s magic and he was sure Stephen was curious about Wanda’s. Wanda would probably be curious about him too, if she knew he existed.

“It _is_ Wanda’s magic. She manipulated our minds when we first ran into her- myself and the rest of the Avengers,” he clarifies. “She made us see our worst fear. Which, might I point out, centers around an incident before magic became all that meaningful in my life.” And since then it’s done nothing good for him, now included. Right from Loki’s scepter, though it had little affect on him, to his most recent encounters with the power of infinity stones its all gone terribly.

Stephen’s eyebrows rise. “Let me guess on that worst fear- New York?” he asks and Tony shakes his head.

“No, well yeah, but not exactly. I… saw the end of the world, an extension of what could have happened in New York I guess. I still don’t think what I saw was just a figment of my imagination. There’s something out there, some _one_ who is going to come back. I _saw_ the army,” he says, shaking his head. He expects Stephen to dismiss the line of thought or tell him it’s irrational in part because it is and Tony knows it, but mostly because this was the opinion he’s gotten from everyone else who has heard this. The Avengers rolled their eyes- literally- and Rhodey didn’t outright say anything negative but he knew Rhodey thought his line of thought wasn’t rational in any way so he didn’t do much more than ignore it when Tony brought it up.

Instead Stephen examines him for a long moment. “If you like I can try and grasp the bits of magic she used on you. It might not do anything, but its possible that I could detect the true nature of the magic,” he says softly.

Tempting, Tony thinks, but would require more exposure to magic and he really didn’t know why he had come here at all. Magic and him have never gone well together. But then Wong seemed to have quite a bit of faith in Stephen and ultimately Tony would get some kind of answer to the question that’s been circling his brain since New York, and especially since Wanda’s mind manipulation. Was the exposure to magic worth the answers he’d get, though?

“How exactly would that work?” he asks and Stephen smiles. Tony glares at him for his efforts.

“What?” Stephen says, “you’re back to asking questions. Now, magic users can sense each other if they know what to feel for, which was why I could sense Wanda’s magic around your mind. I have like fifty questions on what the hell went on when you two met later, but for now I’ll stick to the magic. Essentially what I’d do is reach out with my own magic, which is a different brand than hers by the way, and I’d… get a feeling I suppose. From that feeling I can potentially determine how much of what you saw was magic and what wasn’t.”

Tony raises an eyebrow, “I’m supposed to rely on your feelings?” he asks. That hardly sounded scientific or even remotely accurate to him.

Stephen raises an eyebrow back, “quite like you’ve been relying on yours, yes.”

He shrinks a little, “touché,” he mumbles. “This isn’t going to involve punching my astral form, whatever the hell that is, out of my physical form again is it? Because I would very much want to avoid doing that ever again. It’s a shit teaching technique- what was I even supposed to learn from that?” Probably a whole lecture if Stephen had his way- he seemed to think every small bit of information he gave out was something grand.

“No, it won’t involve punching your astral form from your physical form. And it was a useful way to demonstrate magic,” Stephen tells him primly.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I already knew magic existed, there was no need to punch me into another dimension.”

“Oh you didn’t leave this dimension,” Stephen says and Tony frowns.

Tony opens his mouth to respond to that and then shakes his head; “I think that was probably the least relevant thing that I just said but okay. So, this magic thing, you can feel the difference between something fabricated and real, right?” he asks.

Stephen waves a hand. “Sort of. It’s not exact, but I should be able to feel a difference yes.”

Realistically Tony should have written off magic after Loki let alone everything else, namely Ultron, that happened after that. But unlike Tony Stephen was experienced in magic or at least enough that Wong had faith in him and Wong didn’t seem the type to put faith in just anyone, and unlike Loki Stephen hardly seemed evil. He was an asshole, but he wasn’t evil. “Okay,” he says, “do your thing.”

Stephen surprises Tony by hesitating a little before he lifts a shaky hand and starts essentially drawing shit in the air. It’s mostly squares and circles but all these complicated patterns come out and he frowns. “How’s it do that?” he asks and Stephen shushes him, apparently needing to concentrate. Tony rolls his eyes but lets him continue for a moment before he taps the center of his design and it moves outwards, towards Tony. Instinctively he takes a step back but the magic seems to move through him anyways. He waits for some weird effect from the magic but it’s Stephen who gets weird when he steps closer, into Tony’s personal space.

“Sorry,” he says, “proximity is necessary for this.” Tony squints at him, not sure he believed that but Stephen ignores him and holds his hands on either side of Tony’s head not unlike Wanda if she wanted to manipulate someone’s mind. It wasn’t a pleasant experience but the only difference Tony notices in his state of anything is that it almost felt like he had a fever, something he only noticed because the temperature rise was sudden instead of gradual. After a few moments Stephen steps back and Tony relaxes. He had been far tenser than he had expected to be and he lets out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.

“So?” he asks to break the awkward silence of Stephen frowning at him.

“I… I’m not sure. Parts of your memory feel fabricated, and the ones that don’t aren’t quite right either. It’s like… like someone inserted a real memory into your head and muddled it with fake memories,” he says, eyebrows drawing together in confusion.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Because it totally doesn’t,” Tony says. He wraps his arms around himself more out of instinct than anything. Stephen lifts a hand as if to comfort him but seems to think better of it and his hand falls away.

“I think Wong should repeat the spell- he has more knowledge of mind magic than I do and would likely be able to pinpoint what I’m feeling with more accuracy. Its like… its like the moment Wanda altered your mind you also had some kind of prophetic vision and they mixed. Its completely absurd, but it would explain what I felt,” he says, clearly considering the crazy option.

“That is easily the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard and I used to regularly hang out with a fucking _god_. You should hear some of the ridiculous things Thor has said.” They had some weird traditions in Asgard and, apparently, Thor always wanted to be a Valkyrie and was quite disappointed to find out they were all women. Tony knew the disappointment- he used to want to be an Amazon after his mom read him some Wonder Woman comics as a child but sadly he is a guy. Also he was far too short to be an Amazon. Knowing how Thor felt on that subject didn’t make the rest of his weird comments, or his mead, less bizarre to him though.

Stephen smiles, “I do know a thing or two about strange gods. Not as much as you, but a little. Besides, what’s that Sherlock Holmes quote? ‘Whenever you have eliminated the impossible whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth’? That applies here. Something clearly happened in your head and that’s the only likely explanation however unlikely it is. Follow me,” he says. He steps around Tony and starts walking, abandoning the stacks he had brought to Tony’s room on his desk as he does. Clearly he expects Tony to follow so he does.

*

“That is… peculiar,” Wong says in reference to Tony’s mind. So Tony knew- even before Stephen stuck his magic into it. Stephen shares his insane theory and to Tony’s surprise Wong considers it. “You trust my opinion more than Stephen’s?” Wong says, noting the surprise on Tony’s face.

He shrugs, “you have more experience than he does. It stands to reason you’re the more reliable one.”

Wong smiles, “I appreciate the faith but I can assure you, Stephen is more reliable in all things magic. In knowledge I may be superior, but in magic? Stephen beats me every time; you should have more faith in him because I’m certain he’s right. How much exposure did you have to Loki’s mind stone?”

Now _that_ was a more logical line of thinking than Stephen’s random prophecies so if Wong thought that little speech was about to make Stephen look better he was wrong. “Minimal I’d say. We- Bruce and I- ran tests on it but ultimately we were only around it for maybe a total of two weeks and nothing unusual happened outside of Ultron and we weren’t even there for that.” They left some scans running and boom, genocidal AI. That didn’t mean the stone didn’t do something Tony didn’t notice though, maybe Wanda’s vision was what sparked whatever affect the stone had.

“Hmm. Perhaps exposure stimulated your natural magic, which was further encouraged by Wanda’s magical tampering,” he says.

Stephen nods, “that would make sense. Or at least it would if there was any evidence of Tony’s natural magic previous to this.”

Wong laughs, “Stephen his entire _life_ is proof of some kind of talent in prophecy. You can’t possibly think his fortune has been made on sheer luck alone- people have been saying he sold his soul to the devil for years for that fortune. Plus he’s been on about aliens since they showed up and not in conspiracy theorist way. Clearly when he stopped in front of the time section of that library the magic was trying to tell us something. You have a gift,” Wong tells him.

Tony snorts, “I read the numbers, Wong, that’s not prophecy. I just saw economic patterns where others didn’t and I saw markets that hadn’t been tapped into and made products for those groups. It wasn’t luck, or magic, or anything other than paying attention to what was around me. Besides, if I was a prophet I’d like to think I would have seen a few cataclysmic events in the future starting with but not limited to my being tortured for three months in Afghanistan.” Hell, he would have even settled for being shown what an arrogant prick he was so he could have cut that out and acted like a normal person instead of a raging asshole.

“A prophet only sees what they need to- my bet was that you saw those patterns no one else did because fortune was important to your future. Which is true considering you used to fund the Avengers. Something likely went wrong on your path, which was why you were shown something new in Afghanistan. And when _that_ path went wrong you were shown something new to save your life from the technology was killing you and so on. A prophet isn’t what is portrayed in popular media- they don’t have visions of the future, they simply see things others don’t- and they are extremely rare and powerful,” Wong tells him. Stephen looks impressed but Tony still doesn’t buy it.

“The hell is the point of a prophet who only gets weird feelings about stuff? That’s no more than basic intuition,” he says.

Wong lets out a gruff laugh, “not with your luck it isn’t. The only time you ever seem to have bad luck at all is when you’ve fallen astray- presumably off whatever path you’re supposed to be on.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “I don’t believe in predestined fate. I make my own luck,” he says.

“I’m inclined to side with him,” Stephen adds, surprising Tony by going against Wong on this. He seemed to agree with Wong until that point. Actually he agreed with Wong in general- most of his everyday life relied on it.

“Ye of little faith. Everyone has a purpose; it’s just that Tony’s is clearly more… prominent than others. You don’t make your own luck though, no one does. You certainly didn’t ask Ultron to happen when you and Dr. Banner ran those tests- it happened because it going to, not because the two of you somehow created enough bad luck to nearly end the world,” he points out.

Stephen sighs and rubs his temples. “Fine- so Tony is some kind of prophet, so you think. There are infinite futures that can change at the drop of a hat- literally- how could he possibly be channeling all that information?” Stephen asks. It was a good question even if Tony was irritated that Stephen was even entertaining this mess.

“He isn’t. He’s just channeling big events- with mixed results. I imagine this is normal for anyone who gets feelings about future events- people aren’t very good at interpreting things. But you knew those stones would be important; unfortunately for you that backfired when you chose to tamper with them. The same can be said when you were quoted saying that your trip to Afghanistan would change the world- it _did_ , just not the way you thought it would. There have been several incidences in your life that suggest you’re picking up on things no one else is,” Wong tells him. “But the events a prophet would pick up on aren’t small things like the infinite futures Stephen mentioned- it’s the things that were meant to happen, things that can’t be changed. Stephen- the Ancient One’s death was one of those moments for her.”

Tony didn’t know who the Ancient One was, or why this person had such a stupid fucking title, so he skips past that. “They’re still important- the stones,” Tony says before he thinks. Wong raises an eyebrow and looks at Stephen before looking back at Tony.

“By all means go on,” he says and Tony shrugs.

“There’s no evidence for it, my feelings are irrelevant,” he says. That was good science- and why he has been so all over the place lately. Sure feelings had their place but he let them take over and it was ruining everything. He needed to step back and take a look at things before acting on whatever emotion was overrunning his mind in the moment.

Wong’s eyebrow climbs higher, “but?” he asks.

“Its what the aliens want- the stones I mean. I don’t know what they mean and I don’t know what use they have together or even separate but even without all this mystical shit what are the chances that several of these things would pop up on earth with no recorded history of them before? At least here anyways,” he says. There was something going on, he could feel it. But this time he wasn’t stupid enough to act on it right away- not after things went so wrong the last two times he tried that.

“There isn’t a lack of evidence that aliens want those stones. Isn’t that what caused the incident with Thor in London?” Stephen asks. “And Loki used one to try and take over the world in New York. There’s a very clear link between aliens and world-ending events,” Stephen notes.

That… was a good point. Tony couldn’t remember the alien’s name, the one from London, but his species has been after what Thor called the aeather, which Jane Foster somehow _absorbed_. After seeing what those things could do Tony had a new level of respect for her because having one of those things in your _body_ could not have been pleasant. Point was that aliens have already shown an interest in the stones, which meant Tony’s feelings weren’t really feelings or prophecies at all- they were a result of misplaced knowledge. There wasn’t anything mystical about that.

“Great- now I know why I had my suspicions about the stones. There’s noting magical about noticing a link and not being able to find where you got the knowledge,” he says and Wong sighs.

“You are more stubborn that Stephen and believe me that is saying something. Stephen, take him to the library. Read on prophets and time magic,” Wong tells him. Stephen looks flat out shocked by this, indicating that this sort of invitation didn’t happen often. “You have an interest in time magic too, Stephen. Maybe its time you learned more about it.”

*

Stephen pouts as Tony pulls books from the shelves. “Those are from the restricted section,” Stephen tells him and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, the chains gave me that impression. Pretty sure everyone knows by now how much I hate rules,” he points out.

“It wasn’t so long ago that you advocated for them,” Stephen counters.

Tony grabs another book and balances it on the three he already had in his arms. “Rules have their place just like breaking them does. Truthfully I hadn’t lost faith in the Avengers- it was _me_ I lost faith in. Never should have applied my feelings towards my own inadequacies to the team,” he mumbles more to himself than Stephen.

“Everyone makes mistakes, Tony,” Stephen says softly.

He lets out a sharp snort, “they don’t usually end like mine do.” All of his mistakes were a matter of public safety right from his irresponsible party years right to his most recent actions that have resulted in the near end of the world, the dissolution of the Avengers, and his best friend nearly dying. Not to mention half the rest of the team in jail though that might be the only thing he held against them- well, Clint. Steve wasn’t a moron, he told them all what they were getting into so he had no idea why Clint was so shocked to find himself in prison let alone why he blamed it on _Tony_. And if Hope hadn’t explained who Scott was Tony still wouldn’t know who that utterly forgettable guy with the inexplicable attitude was. Actually he didn’t remember what he looked like at all, just that he got big one time and was snarky.

“No, they don’t but most people don’t live a life like yours. I suspect if they did their mistakes would be just as… invasive to the public. The real question you should be asking isn’t whether or not you make mistakes- being alive means you’ve screwed up somewhere. The question is if you’ve learned from those mistakes,” Stephen says.

Tony rolls his eyes and contemplates whether or not he could grab another book before he decides against it and turns to Stephen. “No, not really. I keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results and wondering why things aren’t changing. I’m going nowhere fast and the whole damn world is suffering for it,” he says. He drops the books on the small desk in the center of the stacks and throws himself in a chair.

Stephen picks a book off the top and sits back in his seat, cracking it open and scanning the pages. “You make the same mistakes over and over, hmm? Name one,” he says almost absently.

“I’m overemotional. I need to step back from things and stop acting on impulse. It’s sort of an ongoing problem,” he says. He’s always been impulsive but before things were… easier he supposed. His decisions didn’t seem to affect anyone- affects of the weapons his company sold aside but that was a different argument.

“You seem rather worked up now, what’s to say you aren’t falling into the same traps all over again except this time using supposed logic to claim you’re more right than before? That also seems to be an issue you have,” Stephen points out, looking up from the book he was holding.

Tony sighs, “there’s a point in there, what is it?” he asks, annoyed with Stephen’s stupid air of mystery.

“The point is that you’re a scientist and like any good scientist you’re testing your methods. When one method failed to yield the results you were looking for you altered the method, and when that failed you altered it again. Its useful for science, but not when the sample you’re testing on is the world and your method can’t remain steady and predictable because your circumstances are never the same. Stop treating the world like a science experiment- it’ll do you some good,” Stephen says.

“Fine, than what do _you_ suggest?” Tony asks in a sharp, annoyed tone.

“Stop trying to maintain control- start moving with the world around you instead of attempting to make it predictable,” Stephen tells him.

Tony squints, “did you just tell me in some bullshit, nonsensical way that my solution to gaining some kind of control over my life was to give up control? That makes no goddamn sense.”

Stephen shrugs, “its shockingly effective,” he says, giving Tony an almost arrogant smirk. Tony flips him off out of annoyance and Stephen laughs. “Look- you keep looking for success and dwelling on your failures- failing isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes failure is the only way to succeed,” Stephen says.

“You sound like a fucking fortune cookie,” Tony mumbles, rolling his eyes. This was the second time he got this line and it wasn’t any more helpful than the last time.

“That’s a little racist,” Stephen says and Tony squints at him again.

“It’s a cookie, Stephen, if Oreos held fortunes you’d sound like one of those too. Besides, fortune cookies were made in the US- they aren’t even Asian,” Tony says in his own defense.

“They were made by Japanese migrants in the late eighteen hundreds- still Asian,” Stephen says.

Tony frowns, “why do either of us know this?” he asks. “Look, sorry about the racism- point is you sound like a bad fortune teller or one of those stupid inspirational quotes soccer moms stick on the back of their vans. It’s not real life advice- things like ‘give up control’ and ‘failure is a good way to learn’ are things people tell children to make them feel better, not something you’d tell an adult who knows better.”

For a moment Stephen just stares at him before he bursts out laughing. “No wonder the Ancient One was always so exasperated with me. We have a lot in common, and you’re probably the most annoying person I’ve ever met,” Stephen tells him. “And that was a terrible apology at best,” he adds.

“Likewise,” Tony mumbles. “Also who the hell is the Ancient One?” He leaves the apology thing alone because Stephen wasn’t wrong on that front. Yet another problem he’s had for his whole life- apologizing was foreign to him.

Stephen smiles sadly, “my mentor, the one I had before Wong,” he says. “She’s dead now.”

“Oh. Well that’s depressing,” Tony says for a lack of anything better. Stephen shakes his head and looks back down at the book in his lap and Tony takes it as a cue to do the same. Stephen’s advice might not make any kind of sense but maybe he’d find reason in the books.

Approximately ten seconds later he decides that logic was nowhere to be found in this god-forsaken library.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post a chapter early because I had a bad day and figured someone might as well have a better day than me :/ That someone isn't Tony but you know, still.
> 
> I guess I at least had a better day than the one Tony has in this...

Stephen was astounded by Tony’s simultaneous willingness and unwillingness to learn. He read books- he read a _lot_ of books but at no point did he express an interest to work the magic, just to understand it. Of course Stephen knew that reading about the knowledge was highly valuable, but practical knowledge was far more useful than a book. He could have read about surgeries all day long as a med student- but the only way to learn was to work on a body. The reading was a stepping-stone to true understanding but Tony wanted nothing to do with magic.

“None of this makes any sense,” Tony says, shaking his head stubbornly.

He lets out a deep sigh, “I know. There’s so much I know, but every time I learn something new I realize how much I don’t know and half the time when I learn something new it contradicts hundreds of things I’ve learned before that. Magic, like most other things in life, is nonsensical.” When he first heard the words, or words similar to it, he thought they were absurd and useless. None of the Ancient One’s advice made any sense to him- giving up control to gain control, magic doesn’t make sense, there were things beyond this world that he didn’t understand or know about, it was all nonsense to him. Now he knew it was true, obviously, but that didn’t teach him how to teach Tony that his methods of gaining knowledge in the most hands off way possible was bound to fail. Magic wasn’t a process of books; it was a process of experience.

Tony rolls his eyes at him and Stephen grits his teeth, irritated with his _stubborn_ fucking soul mate. “Why are you here?” he finally asks. “You think none of this makes sense? Fine, you’re free to leave and you could have gone since you got here but you didn’t. What’s keeping you here if you refuse to listen to what I have to say?” he snaps.

 _Very_ much to Stephen’s annoyance Tony shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t even know why I’m here, I just felt drawn here and clearly that was a mistake. All this stupid endeavor has taught me is that you and Wong are nuts and think I can see the future.”

Stephen pinches the bridge of his nose. “How many books have you read in the last two days that tell you that isn’t what a prophet is? And it makes sense if you know anything about magic but thanks to your stubborn nature and refusal to actually _learn_ the information you’re taking in you know nothing!” Stephen yells.

“Oh what do you know?” Tony yells back. “Your librarian knows more than you do, you’re his magical muscle.”

He throws his hands up in the air, eyes rolling. “Oh for _gods_ sake would you refrain from trying to insult me with a hierarchy you don’t even understand? It’s embarrassing,” he tells Tony in a clipped, annoyed tone.

“Seems to have gotten to you just fine so clearly I got something right,” Tony counters.

Stephen _barely_ resists the urge to smack that satisfied smirk of Tony’s face because that would hardly solve anything and also he didn’t want to find out what smacking a prophet would do magically speaking. He could feel Tony’s power but the irritating shrimp of a man _refused_ to acknowledge it and Stephen wanted to _shake_ him for it. “Misinformation annoys me,” he says instead of any of the long list of snide comments or physical assaults he wants to deliver because it was just as true and less destructive. Wong best be proud later.

“Then what the hell are you doing playing Hallmark Sayings at a magic school in Nepal?” Tony snaps.

“What the hell are _you_ doing arguing with the Hallmark Saying at a magic school in Nepal! You should have gone to Britain to play Hogwarts, at least you could have hung out with entitled white men like you instead of wasting my time!” Stephen snaps.

Tony throws his head back and laughs, “oh as if _you’re_ less entitled, I’ve heard all about you. Your ego rivals mine in my early twenties and _trust_ me that is a _feat_ \- having an ego a quarter the size of mine would have made it the size of Texas!”

Stephen steps in close and glares down at Tony, “last I checked I learned from my arrogance while you continue to run tests of things you don’t understand and the whole _world_ almost paid for that. Which one of us is arrogant again?” he asks in a low, dark tone.

He regrets the words near immediately when he not only sees the hurt but physically _feels_ it as, for just a moment, Tony’s face twists a little before settling into a smooth, unmovable mask. “You’re right, and I don’t know why I’m here and I’m wasting our time. Good bye, Stephen,” he says, turning on his heel and marching off. Stephen goes to follow, to apologize or something but his stupid cloak holds him back, giving him a violent yank when he tries to continue forward anyways. When he stops fighting it the cloak lifts off his shoulders and circles to face him, giving him a shockingly judgmental glare for an object with no face before it floats off the direction Tony took off in.

Stephen stares after it, unsure what he just did but getting the feeling that this wasn’t going to be good.

*

Wong glares at him and Stephen tries not to shrink under the heavy gaze. Its been years since anyone could make him feel small and honestly his mother was the only one who could successfully make him feel that way anyways but he guessed he could now add Wong to the list. “You said _what_?” he asks in a tone too calm to betray how he really felt.

“I relayed what I said and last I checked you have no hearing problems. And if you did I’d know given that I used to be a medical professional,” he mumbles.

“This is _serious_ , Stephen!” Wong yells and he jumps in surprise.

“I never implied that it wasn’t Wong. Besides, what was I supposed to do? This is a Sanctum, not a prison. I can’t just _keep_ him here,” he points out.

“What were you supposed to _do_?” Wong hisses in a low, dangerous tone. “You were supposed to teach him, not whatever your clumsy attempts were though I should be thankful he’s your soul mate. At least you have enough patience to explain the basics to him before you let your arrogance and self importance take over again!”

Stephen jumps up, “I tried my best, he didn’t want to learn! What was I supposed to do with that?” he yells.

“The Ancient One tried _her_ best and _you_ didn’t want to learn either, you kept whining and crying about your hands so what did she do!” Wong yells back.

Showed him evidence that his hands weren’t the problem, he was. “How the hell am I supposed to show Tony his attitude is the problem, not magic?” he asks, rolling his eyes. “The man is impossible. He’ll read _all_ day without taking in a single piece of information! I don’t know how to fix that and it shouldn’t be my problem!”

“Your hands were your problem too, but the Ancient One was kind enough to help _you_ through a tough time and believe me I considered throwing you out more than once. And the problem isn’t Tony or his attitude it’s _you_. Your _job_ as the leader of this Sanctum is to help the lost, to put them back on the right path, not to arrogantly assume they are beyond help because of your own incompetence at your job!” Wong yells, waving a hand around.

“I _tried_ , Wong, he didn’t listen!” Stephen yells back.

“If every single encounter you had with magic ended in alien invasions, the world ending, your mind being manipulated into seeing your worst fears, and various other highly traumatic events you probably wouldn’t be willing to listen either! The man has PTSD and you essentially punished him for it while trying to praise yourself like you’ve done some good deed by failing at your position. Find him Stephen, and bring him back,” Wong snaps.

Stephen glares at Wong for a long few moments before Wong seems to notice something. “Where is your cloak?” he asks.

He shrugs, “took off after the fight with Tony after giving me a weirdly judgmental glare considering it has no face.”

“Even the _cloak_ thinks you’re a jackass,” Wong mumbles. “Go find Tony and bring him back, he was here for a reason and given his past with catastrophic events I’d rather _not_ find out what’s about to happen because he fell off the path he’s meant to be on.”

*

Tony is sitting in an airport tapping his foot and swatting at Stephen’s stupid cape as it tries to keep his foot still. The cape was lying across his lap and thought that pressing itself to the top of Tony’s foot would keep it still. He taps the other foot instead, earning an irritated flap from the cloak for his efforts. His tapping grows faster as the minutes drag on and his stomach turns over. It was stupid but he couldn’t help but feel like something was about to go wrong and he hoped the thing that went wrong wasn’t him missing his flight.

Someone sits next to him and he ignores them, eyes on the clock in the far corner of the room. “Nice cape,” the man says and Tony turns to look at him. There was nothing overly remarkable about him aside from his clothing choices, which looked more like what Stephen wore than what the rest of the population of Nepal wore.

“Its not mine,” Tony says, wondering why the cape followed him out to begin with. The stupid thing _refused_ to let him leave without it and when he stopped fighting the cape the cape stopped fighting him too. So now he was stuck with some magical fabric he hoped wouldn’t be a problem when crossing boarders.

“How well do you know Stephen Strange?” the man asks and Tony frowns.

“I don’t know Stephen Strange at all,” he says, wondering what his soul mate had to do with any of this. The man looks confused for a moment and glances at the cape. Tony knows immediately then what that meant but he chooses not to acknowledge it at least until the man speaks.

“Actually you do, that’s his cloak. And you’re his soul mate,” he says. The cape flurries into action as the man stands, flying around Tony’s shoulders and yanking him back from his seat. Tony yelps and flails his arms around as the airport… _moves_. He recognized the magic of course, but he had no idea why the floor was doing… _that_ and why the walls were moving or what this guy’s intentions were given that he was clearly a magic user with a vendetta.

“First of all I didn’t know Stephen’s last name, and second of all I don’t really like him either so if you could- Jesus what are you doing?” Tony yells at the cape as it _lifts_ him from the ground.

“Why is the Cloak of Levitation responding to you?” the man asks and Tony lets out another yelp as the cape drags him to the left as the building spins more. Tony looks around wildly but the population was just… gone. He hadn’t seen Stephen do that trick before but he was curious about it now.

“The cloak of who what? Where are the people? Why the hell are you even- ahh!” Tony yells as the cloak drags him off again, this time to the ground as a burst of magic comes his way. Tony didn’t know what those symbols meant but he wasn’t exactly willing to test it by letting himself get hit by the spell.

“If you’ve spent time with Stephen you’d know plenty about the natural laws by now- and that he likes breaking them. You two have that in common,” the man says, stalking towards him as the cloak drags him across the ground. Tony was starting to get motion sickness from the way things were moving around him let alone the cloak dragging him all over the place.

“Uh,” he says intelligently, getting dragged sharply to the right as the cloak pulls him away from another attack. Tony finally finds his feet- and what looked like an exit- and he tries to run for it but the cloak holds him back. “What the hell are you doing?” Tony yells at it. In his brief pause the cloak settles so Tony tries to run again only to find the stupid cloak holding him back.

“That cloak shouldn’t respond to you, how long have you even been studying the mystic arts?” his companion turned attacker asks, frowning at Tony.

“How are you not getting motion sickness?” Tony asks as the floor spins again, this time taking him with it and he staggers, letting the cloak catch his weight and straighten him. When the floor finally stops moving Tony goes to turn back towards that exit but the cloak lifts him instead and his legs start moving with no purchase. He does, however, find himself close enough to kick his attacker so he does, letting out a squeak when this results in another magical attack hurled at him. The cloak spins him around and obviously blocks the attack but Tony doesn’t know how that’s possible not that he’s questioning it.

“Mordo,” someone new says and the guy that was currently trying to either kill or maim him turns. So does the cloak, spinning Tony back around to watch as Stephen steps through one of those portal thingies. He lets out a sigh of relief, surprised that he was relieved to see Stephen despite being absolutely _furious_ with him at the moment.

The cloak zooms towards him, Tony still pinned in it, and drops Tony behind Stephen before gently draping itself over Stephen’s shoulders. He’s pretty sure that’s about when he passes out.

*

When Tony wakes up again the first thing he does is lean over and throw up. Stephen looks mildly disgusted by this and Tony flips him off. He had no right to be disgusted by Tony’s perfectly normal human reaction to being _spun all over the fucking place_ by a magical cloak while being attacked by some rando in an airport that made all the people disappear and the room spin. Anyone would throw up after that. Tony had better things to focus on than his queasy stomach though, like the fact that he was apparently back at the Sanctum with this _soul mate_ who would _absolutely_ know who he is.

“You,” Tony snarls, “get the hell away from me.”

“You’re welcome for saving your ass,” Stephen says in a sarcastic tone and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, for what purpose, hmm? Because I’m rich, or maybe I’m useful to you somehow, it this some weird con to combine magic and my technology? Is Wong in on it or did you not tell him either?” he asks, anger dripping from his voice. Tony wanted to think Wong didn’t know because he liked Wong- the man was smart, capable, but mostly he knew Stephen wasn’t infallible despite his higher rank. It endeared Tony to him and he really didn’t want to think he was in on some elaborate way to some how screw him over _again_. Shit, if it was money Stephen wanted he could have everything Tony had, he was done with this. He had no interest in playing mind games with magic users- _again_.

Stephen frowns at him, “what the hell are you talking about?” he asks.

“He’s talking about Mordo accidentally telling him that you’re his soul mate, you fool,” Wong says, walking over and gingerly avoiding the vomit to Tony’s left.

“So you knew?” Tony asks, leaning away as Wong reaches for him.

“Yes, and I advised Stephen to tell you because I knew this would happen,” he says.

Tony rolls his eyes, “what, are you a prophet now too?” he asks sarcastically.

Wong laughs to Tony’s surprise, seemingly unruffled by his attitude. Stephen was not taking the news so well and was pale. His hands looked like they were shakier than usual too but Tony didn’t know or care if that was a result of finding out his lie blew up in his face. “Of course I’m not a prophet- you don’t need to be one to know keeping information like this to yourself is bound to go badly. I watch television and read bad romance novels, you know- this sort of thing always generates more trouble than the lie is worth.”

“I didn’t lie,” Stephen says, his ability to speak returning apparently. “I just didn’t say anything about it.”

“Lying by omission,” Wong and Tony say in sync. “Its still technically a lie, Stephen,” Wong continues.

Stephen rolls his eyes and Tony _really_ resents that. “I had better things to concern myself with and so did you. The soul mate thing was a distraction and I chose to do away with it,” he says.

“And what did I get to do, hmm? Nothing because you didn’t fucking tell me anything!” Tony snaps. “What is it you expected out of that?” he asks.

“Why do you think I want something from you?” Stephen asks. “I have everything I want here, I don’t need _you_.”

“Oh fuck you,” Tony snarls, trying and mostly failing to struggle to his feet.

“So what, you’re mad that I want something from you but you’re mad when I don’t actually want something from you? Make up your mind,” Stephen snaps at him.

Tony looks at Wong, who looks quite like he’d like to smack Stephen. Well, they at least had that in common. “Stephen when you tell someone in a snide tone they’re all but worthless to you they tend to get upset. I _swear_ as a grown man you should know this by now,” Wong mumbles. Tony lets out an unexpected laugh and Wong sighs. “Look, you’ve been through a lot today. Leave Stephen and his stupidity alone and go lay down. You need the rest,” he tells Tony. He sounds like he cares at least and Tony sighs.

“Better than dealing with this asshole,” he mumbles, looking pointedly at Stephen. He might talk a big game about not needing Tony but clearly he saved Tony’s ass for _some_ reason.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discussions happen next chapter! :) also i feel like absolute ass so i thought i'd update this so someone else can feel better at least lol

“You did this to yourself, Stephen. Stop sulking like Tony did you wrong,” Wong tells him. Stephen shakes his head at him and ignores his words. Instead he focuses on Tony’s- or at least his situation with him. It seemed frighteningly familiar to him before but he only just realized why. Trying to bond over something _Stephen_ loved, pressing _his_ points without really taking a moment to listen to what Tony had to say, getting annoyed when Tony didn’t react the way he wanted him to, telling him he was all but meaningless in his life… This was all the same thing as his relationship with Christine. Apparently over the last two years he’s learned absolutely nothing about relationships because he was in the same situation as he was before.

He wonders if Christine would be gracious enough to outline his flaws to him with potential solutions. She’d have a much clearer view than he would. “I’m not sulking because Tony did something wrong. I’m sulking because _I_ did something wrong. How am I supposed to fix this, Wong?”

Wong, being the absolutely useful mentor that he is, shrugs. “I don’t know Stephen, and it isn’t my responsibility to fix this. He’s your soul mate and he’s clearly on someone’s map given his recent attack,” he says.

Stephen considers responding to the first half of that but decides not to in favor of filling Wong in on the rest of the story. In his haste of getting back to the Sanctum post snatching Mordo’s Sling Ring and kicking him into the middle of a desert he hadn’t told Wong _who_ attacked Tony. “We might have bigger problems than my love life,” he says and Wong snorts.

“That’s an understatement,” he says and Stephen glares at him. “But go on,” Wong encourages.

He sits back in his seat and sighs. “The person who attacked Tony is someone we know. It was Mordo, Wong. He was on about the natural order of things and ridding the world of the people who mess those things up,” he says, shaking his head. “To be honest Tony made a good point about the natural order not being so black and white considering Thor’s version of the natural order is far different than our own but he passed out right after that and I was too busy trying to make sure neither of us got killed to get more information.”

Wong sits down, looking paler than he had a moment ago. “Jonathon Pangborn,” he says softly.

Stephen frowns, “okay?” he asks more than states thanks to his confusion.

“I had heard… I heard that his miraculous cure had failed him and not long after being re-paralyzed he died. I thought it was odd but I didn’t…” he trails off.

“You didn’t think someone intentionally did that to him,” Stephen finishes and Wong nods.

“Why Tony, though? He’s got no real connection to the mystic arts like Pangborn does,” Wong points out.

No, but he did have a habit of messing with things he shouldn’t, which is a theory Stephen shares with Wong. “Mordo, he’s intelligent and methodical. It probably occurred to him to go for people like Pangborn first- and he probably isn’t the only one- but he’s not stupid enough to think that messing with the natural order of things doesn’t just extend to mystic arts. Tony is high profile target who famously messes with all things natural as much as humanly possible, sometimes with disastrous affects. It makes sense that he’s on Mordo’s radar. I just don’t know why he went for Tony instead of me,” he says. Or Wong even- both of them would be easier targets considering they would trust Mordo at first, making them vulnerable to attack. Now that element of surprise was gone.

“We’ve all seen your soul mark Stephen- he went for Tony because he thought Tony knew who you were and must have been surprised when Tony didn’t know. Attacking him would lure you in- _did_ lure you in- but he didn’t count on your cloak protecting Tony nor did he count on you lying to Tony about who you were. That might have saved his life,” Wong says, shaking his head.

It certainly would have bought Tony time, and the confusion over the cloak would have bought more time as well. Relics didn’t tend to like more than one user at a time- they only changed users when their previous user was dead or if they were no longer worthy of the relic. In theory Tony shouldn’t be able to use the cloak but multiple people have told Stephen that the cloak was fickle and it had far more sentience than the average relic. It wasn’t much of a surprise that it behaved differently towards Tony than the average relic would. Plus Wong did mention that being his soul mate could have an affect on how the relic behaved as well.

“He intended to kill us at the same time. He must have been counting on an actual soul bond to have formed both in the normal sense of the word and magically. Actually that way he would have only needed to kill one of us, the loss of a soul mate would destroy the other,” he says. The plan was… well it was brilliant actually. He wonders if Mordo planned it that way from the moment he must have started tracking Tony or if that came later. Either way it didn’t much matter, using one soul mate to destroy the other and taking out two large profile targets was impressive had it worked. That’s about when Stephen remembers a detail from Tony’s life he had forgotten about a long time ago. “Wong, doesn’t Tony have another soul mate?” he asks.

Wong frowns, “does he?”

“That best friend of his, the only one he allows to use his armors- isn’t that his soul mate?” he asks more urgently this time.

“If he has more than one soul mate are you the romantic one or the platonic one?” Wong asks and Stephen shakes his head and stands.

“Who cares what soul mate I am? We need to confirm with Tony that he has a second soul mate and go to him,” he says, all but running from the room. Wong catches up not long after.

*

Tony’s dreams are fitful and dark. He kept seeing orange-y yellow lights, and he could hear someone yelling as he moved further down the hallway. He couldn’t distinguish what anyone was saying though, and his movement was sluggish at least in his own mind. Lights flashed around him before someone lets out a loud yell and Tony wakes, sitting straight up and nearly head-butting Stephen as he does so. “What the hell?” he snaps, glaring a Stephen.

“Do you have another soul mate?” Stephen asks. Tony can feel the blood drain from his face and he tries, and mostly fails, to move quickly out of bed. Stephen catches him before he falls, “we’ve got time, relax. We just need to know where he is,” Stephen tells him.

“No, we _don’t_ have time,” Tony tells him and Wong waves Stephen off when he goes to say something.

“Where is he?” Wong asks.

‘The Avengers Compound,” Tony tells them.

*

“Are you sure he’ll even know to look here?” Rhodey asks Hope. It was so weird looking at the world from this angle again. He was used to butts in his face all the time now and to be standing was… odd. Not that he was _technically_ standing.

“Of course he will,” Hope tells him, “he’s not an idiot.”

Yeah, Rhodey had a lifetime of proof that suggested that despite being a genius Tony was hardly the smartest guy in the world but he keeps quiet about it. “So uh, what the hell was that?” Rhodey asks instead.

He can’t see Hope but he can guarantee she shrugged. She was currently hiding in the helmet of the Iron Man armor Rhodey was currently stashed in and the wings from her Wasp armor kept brushing against his cheek. It was really annoying but they didn’t have much choice but to hide here with Hope all shrink-y. The problem was that _here_ was Tony’s Malibu house that was still mostly destroyed. Hope argued that whoever their attacker was wouldn’t think to go to a property of Tony’s that Tony wouldn’t go to and he figured that was decent logic. That left them three options.

They could have gone here- which they elected to do- they could have gone to his childhood home, or they could have gone to that vacation house in Italy his mom liked that he couldn’t bear to step foot in after she died. Hope nixed that one first in part because it wasn’t in the country and also because she didn’t really want to dredge up old memories of Tony’s. That was why the mansion went next, plus it was massive and not updated so the armor would stick out like a sore thumb. That left Malibu so off they went. Thankfully FRIDAY knew where it was and Rhodey let the AI autopilot them there. Tony told him to watch out for his AIs and letting FRIDAY learn things was a good way to do that. Plus if she got lost that only made them harder to track, which was how he got that past Hope, who didn’t care about Tony’s AIs learning so much as Rhodey’s safety.

“I have no idea but I hope Tony shows up soon, my legs are cramped in here,” she says.

“You _do_ remember he’s in Nepal, right?” Rhodey asks. Hope lets out a long, deep sigh.

“Guess my legs are going to get more cramped,” she mumbles.

Rhodey snorts, “oh no, cramped legs, what ever will you do?” he says sarcastically.

“You know what, just because you’re paralyzed doesn’t mean I want cramped legs so shush,” Hope says and Rhodey laughs.

*

When they get to the compound its fucking _destroyed_ but that isn’t what catches Tony’s attention. Stephen asks him something but Tony ignores it, looking around at what he was seeing. Stephen goes to ask his question again but Wong shoos him off, “what is it, Tony?” he asks. “Don’t think, just trust your gut,” he adds.

Tony turns to glare at him, “seriously? That’s what we’re doing right now?” he asks.

“You’ve obviously sensed something so-” Tony cuts Wong off.

“I’m not a damn prophet because I had a dream that was weirdly similar to what I’m seeing now. It’s a coincidence,” he says, shaking his head at this nonsense.

“Which direction did they go in?” Stephen asks, looking right confused.

“Down that hallway, towards my lab. There’s plenty of weapons there,” he says.

“Funny that you know that given that you have no evidence, but you’re right nevertheless. I can feel the magic in that direction,” Stephen says, looking pleased with himself as he walks in the direction Tony point out. He resents that Wong also looks impressed because it wasn’t impressive, it was just weird that he guessed right. He still follows Stephen down the hall though.

“So they came here and did what?” Stephen asks not that Tony was falling for that again.

“I don’t fucking- oh, looks like Rhodey took one of my suits,” he says, earning another satisfied smirk from Stephen but Tony smirks back.

“There’s one missing, counting isn’t magical,” he says. Wong snickers at them until he looks into the room Tony was talking about.

“How could you possibly know there was an armor missing from that mess?” he asks.

Funny thing was that his lab was actually pretty clean at the moment. But he still knew where he left everything and Rhodey took a suit- and he would have had to have been experimenting with Tony’s technology that calls the armor to him to do it. Clearly he built a successful sensor to one of Tony’s newer armors because that’s what was missing. He wondered how he worked out how to call the armor to him without his chair interfering with it. “I know everything in this room inside and out. Rhodey took a suit,” he says.

“And went where? This is where the magical trail all but ends,” Stephen tells him, waving a hand around in the air. He looked like a fool but Tony doesn’t tell him that.

Besides, he didn’t know where they went either. He could ask FRIDAY but that meant risking someone overhearing and he didn’t want to do that so he thinks for a minute. Rhodey was good at the tactical but given his current state of body he wasn’t abundantly equipped to defend himself. He’s been learning, but it was a process to figure out self defense in a wheel chair so Hope would want them both gone. Rhodey for safety reasons and herself to act as his guard. The problem was that they could have gone anywhere. Tony thinks for several more moments before his phone buzzes with an alert from FRIDAY that told him someone had broken in to the compound- and that it was a set response.

“Thanks for that, FRI. I know where they went,” Tony tells Wong and Stephen. He instructs FRIDAY to go dark to all but Rhodey and Hope and walks out of the room, down the hall, and out of the house.

*

“You could have shown up sooner,” Hope tells him, gently flexing her legs.

“I was as fast as I could be, relax about it,” Tony tells her.

“And he showed up hours before expected, which is great because I really gotta pee and I don’t trust you to have actually built in some way to pee despite that time at your birthday party,” Rhodey says. Tony winces and Stephen raises an eyebrow.

“That time at his birthday party?” he prompts.

“Never mind,” Tony tells Stephen. “Are you two okay?” he asks, looking between Hope and Rhodey. Hope had a cut under her left eye that had swollen some but looked otherwise fine, Rhodey didn’t look hurt at all.

“I’m fine,” Hope says, “and so is Rhodey.”

“He wet his tin can at his birthday party a couple years ago,” Rhodey says gleefully, obviously intent on embarrassing Tony.

“In my defense I was dying,” he says. “So what the hell happened?” he asks in an attempt to change the subject.

Rhodey shrugs, “we have no idea. Some dude just… appeared in this shower of sparks and asked who I was but Hope was already half in action. You kicked some serious ass, baby, good for you,” Rhodey tells Hope, smiling at her.

Hope smiles back before it falls away and she turns to Tony. “What the hell did you do this time?” she asks.

“Hey!” Rhodey and Stephen say in sync and then exchange a confused look, obviously not sure why they seemed to mirror each other’s objection.

“Don’t look at me like that Rhodes, you know how irresponsible Tony is on the best of days. And I went to school with him, I have some pretty insane stories myself,” she says. Well, she wasn’t wrong…

“It wasn’t Tony, it was me. Sort of. Technically it was the Ancient One, _then_ me but I was still the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. Anyways this isn’t Tony’s fault,” Stephen interjects. Tony gives him a dirty look because he didn’t need Stephen to defend his honor. Rhodey’s brows draw together as he looks between Tony and Stephen but whatever he’s thinking he doesn’t say it.

“Mordo’s actions are his own doing,” Wong tells them. “But you are in danger thanks to Mordo’s preoccupation with Stephen and by extension Tony and the two of you. I assume you two are also soul mates?” Wong asks Rhodey and Hope.

“That’s none of your business,” Hope tells Wong in a prim tone and Rhodey makes a face.

“Where’d you get the walking fortune cookies? Couldn’t you have brought better muscle?” he asks and Tony bursts out laughing.

Stephen looks _so_ offended by Rhodey’s comment, which honestly makes the whole thing better. Damn right he was some shitty magical muscle.

“First, really? The Asian guys are fortune cookies? Very creative. Second, considering I am the Sorcerer Supreme and Wong is well versed in magic and you were just attacked by a magic user I would say that we’re the only sufficient muscle you’re going to get. So are you soul mates or not?” Stephen snaps.

Guilt briefly crosses Rhodey’s face at the fortune cookie comment but it passes when Stephen says ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ because he knew what Tony’s soul marks said. His eyes practically bug out of his head and he looks at Tony, “it’s a long story that involves me only finding out who he was after _I_ got attacked by the magic user that just attacked you because Stephen is an insufficient communicator apparently. Sorcerer Supreme my ass, more like Sorcerer Su-Sucks,” he mumbles.

“Oh ha ha, so clever,” Stephen says in a mocking tone, clapping at Tony.

“Eat shit,” Tony tells him and Wong throws his arms up in frustration.

“You two are impossible! Now both of you stop so more mature people can sort this out,” he snaps. “Is he always like this?” Wong asks Rhodey.

He shrugs, “pretty much. Bring up Justin Hammer and see what-”

“Justin Hammer is a total waste of skin and I should sue him for slander for even _suggesting_ that he is even remotely in my league of intelligence or attractiveness,” Tony says, cutting Rhodey off.

“There you have it,” Rhodey says. “He’s petty as hell and he’s never going to let this mess with this sorcerer dude go so you’re going to have to just deal with it. Seriously though- what is going on?” he asks.

Wong sighs and gives them a rundown of recent events, including some details that Tony didn’t know about in regards to the soul mate thing. That made things a lot more complicated because it meant a lot more people could be used to get to Tony, and therefore to Stephen. Normal people didn’t usually have soul mate systems this wide either. Most only had one soul mate be it platonic, familial, romantic, or otherwise but Tony’s having two made that system a lot easier to attack. Its something he’s always known but Rhodey had military training and usually saved Tony’s ass from assassination attempts or stabbings or whatever, Hope was unheard of outside of science and business- which was a real shame but it gave her an extra level of protection outside her martial arts training. And Tony had people around him at all times- getting to him was hard.

Now though there was magic, and gods, and a bunch of other shit that wasn’t human to go and threaten them all and Tony’s suit could only do so much. Hope was obviously capable of defending herself and Rhodey but just _leaving_ them in the open didn’t sit right with Tony and Stephen obviously looked uncomfortable with it too. Rhodey wanted nothing to do with any Sanctums or magic, but Hope was efficient.

“We’re going where its safe at least until I can learn what I’m dealing with,” she tells Rhodey.

“Hope-” he tries but she waves a hand at him and he stops talking.

“No. I’ve seen a lot of shit since New York, the whole world has, but I’ve never seen any of that and I am _not_ taking my chances. Especially not with these two idiots,” she says, gesturing to Stephen and Tony.

“Okay in Tony’s defense he’s been dealing with a lot okay, give him a break. I agree about the other guy though, you seem shady as hell,” Rhodey tells him, giving Stephen a suspicious once over. Tony pretends to cough to cover his laugh.

Wong sighs, “shall we make a trip to the New York Sanctum, then?” he asks.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news, I'm almost done writing this! I've been working hard on getting this done so I can work on another project of mine. I promised myself I couldn't work on it until this was finished and I'm almost at my goal! Like two more chapters from where I left off probably :)

Rhodey was laughing way too hard and it was irritating Tony and, from the looks of it, Stephen. “A _prophet_? Man I want what you guys are smoking, that’s some good shit,” he says, clapping his hands together.

“You’re a shitty prophet if you didn’t see like, most of your life happen,” Hope tells him.

“Well he was a shitty enough prophet to see that you two were in trouble last night so maybe you should count yourselves lucky you weren’t jammed in that Iron Man suit longer,” Stephen tells them in a clipped tone, clearly annoyed. “You should be grateful.” He stalks off, earning a raised eyebrow from Rhodey in particular.

“I still think you’re a shit prophet,” Hope tells him.

“No offense but I don’t really buy it either. I mean if you can see the future how is it possible for you to have made so many um… catastrophic mistakes? No offense,” Rhodey says again.

Tony squints at them, “thanks for the support guys, I really appreciate it,” he says sarcastically. “And apparently prophets only see what’s relevant to them. Don’t ask how me accidentally almost ending the world a couple times _wasn’t_ relevant to me but there you have it.” He waves an arm around and shakes his head. A _prophet_. It wasn’t hard to see why Hope and Rhodey found that so ridiculous even if he could do without the mocking.

Hope and Rhodey exchange a look, “you actually believe that? The prophet thing I mean,” Rhodey says.

Not until Rhodey decided to mock it no, he hadn’t. Or he hadn’t allowed himself to feel convinced of it anyways. “I don’t know what I believe, but my feelings lately have had an eerily weird way of coming back to haunt me later so who the hell knows anymore?” He sure as hell didn’t and truthfully he was more concerned with the new problem of whoever kept trying to fucking kill him and everyone he cared about. Minus Stephen, he didn’t really care about Stephen.

“So uh, what would that mean? The prophet thing I mean?” Rhodey asks, serious now.

Tony looks over to the three doors he noticed almost as soon as they walked into the Sanctum here. Each door led to a different location that could be changed with a dial, Stephen told him. All three areas started in one place and ended in totally different spots. He shakes his head because now he was thinking like some kind of inspirational saying machine too and he’s had enough of that. “I don’t know but I’m pretty sure if the prophet thing is true I’m broken or something. Seriously, Hope makes a point in saying I should have seen basically my whole life coming.” Most everything he did cast a wide affect on the world’s population, it stood to reason that he should have known when things would go bad and when they wouldn’t. Hell, some stuff like his making weapons should have been obvious to anyone with a shred of morality from the start.

He jumps a little when he feels a hand on his lower back. “You’ll figure it out Tony, you always do,” Rhodey tells him softly. He could hear the faith in Rhodey’s voice but Rhodey was willing to put up with a lot from him so it doesn’t really count for much.

“I’m inclined to side with him. I have yet to see you stay down long and to be honest I’m kind of jealous of your ability to problem solve just about anything,” Hope says, folding her arms across her chest and looking at the doors leading to three locations. Tony sure as hell hoped they were right because he had serious doubts.

*

Stephen is surprised when Tony comes to him but rather unsurprised that he chose to hide in the attic. He considers saying something to Tony but he realizes that Tony likely hadn’t sought Stephen out purposefully so he leaves it be and looks out the Sanctum window. The view was much different than the one in Nepal, which they were set to go back to in the morning. There were others there Stephen was supposed to consider, after all. Wong has already headed back to deal with the students. Stephen missed New York terribly, he missed everywhere he used to frequent in America terribly, but for now Nepal was his home.

“Why didn’t you travel back here?” Tony asks after a few long moments. Stephen looks over to find Tony standing beside him at the window and he shrugs.

“New York didn’t feel right at the time, I had no idea why. Now I suspect it had something to do with you,” he says honestly.

“You know I _live_ in New York, right? Seems stupid to travel halfway across the world to meet the soul mate that lives in the same city as you,” Tony points out.

He snorts, “the famous soul mate who is surrounded by guards, military personal, media, fans, Avengers, and sometimes aliens at all times? I never would have gotten close to you and I knew it so I never tried.”

“Most people think their soul mate is the most important person in their lives and you didn’t think to try talking to me?” Tony asks, clearly not buying that. Stephen wasn’t an idiot either- Tony’s disbelief likely wasn’t out of arrogance so much as being used to people faking being his soul mate only to be surprised that the real thing didn’t bother to try. Or maybe there was an underlying hurt there. He couldn’t blame Tony for not knowing who he was, famous doctors weren’t usually well known outside the medical community so he doubted Tony knew of him.

“I had my own life and I was satisfied with it. I loved medicine- still do- and for a while I even thought I loved Christine too, but ultimately that was never the life I was meant to live. I was always supposed to end up here, presumably with you,” he says though he had doubts on that last bit. Christine had been a much better fit at least until recent events. He, like most men he assumed, thought his romantic soul mate would be a woman. When he met Christine that made sense but they quickly figured out that wasn’t working, but they did work as friends not that Stephen didn’t press it. He was convinced he was right and she was wrong for what seem like such stupid reasons now. Christine, he was sure, would agree. But that didn’t mean he had an abundance of faith in Tony.

Tony lets out a soft laugh. “I thought I loved Pepper too but I think she was just convenient. We’ve known each other for years, she’s seen me at my worst, my best, and my even worse than my worst. It made sense to be with her but I think she could feel that I made a safe choice, not a practical one so she left.” Stephen laughs unintentionally, drawing a dirty look from Tony but he shakes his head.

“Sorry- that’s not funny, its just that the safe choice thing- that’s so not your style. I’m surprised by it, I guess,” he says.

“You shouldn’t be,” Tony tells him, “not when you consider almost everyone I’ve ever loved has beat me, lied to me, betrayed me, left me, tried to kill me, or some combination of the above. The exceptions beyond Rhodey and technically Hope? Pepper and my mother. That’s still true, might I add.”

He winces even though Tony isn’t exactly wrong. Stephen wondered what it was like to live a life where everyone loved him but no one knew him, and those that did chose to treat him like shit mostly. Not that, at least according to the media, Tony didn’t dish out his own fair share of bad treatment. Though now Stephen wondered how much of that might have been deserved.

“Wong is my only friend. Not just right now- I mean he’s my only friend _ever_. I don’t know if you noticed but I’m unpleasant to be around,” he says and Tony bursts out laughing. Stephen laughs a little too but Tony doubles over wheezing. He rolls his eyes after Tony continues laughing hard enough to grow abs but lets Tony have the moment, clutching at his ribs as he wheezes away. He could count Christine but she did abandon him, rightfully so though she had been nice enough to not let him die the last time they interacted. She didn’t keep in contact though, which left Wong as his only friend.

When Tony finally regains control of himself he straightens. “Any reason why?” he asks, still smiling with a hand covering his ribs.

“Fear of letting anyone close to me, I think, because I’ve seen what kind of consequences emotional wreckage can have. I’ve never been fond of failure and if I got too close to someone and it ended… well, I didn’t want to deal with the fallout.” He wasn’t sure he’s ever told anyone that before and it doesn’t feel nice. People said feeling vulnerable was some kind of treat provided you knew the other person would be there for you but all Stephen felt was the need to crawl under a rock.

“Better to be an asshole to everyone before they’re an asshole to you,” Tony says and Stephen nods.

“Exactly. That and I like medicine more than people. Human bodies are easy, human beings? Absolute disasters,” he says.

Tony laughs, “well, you’re not wrong about that. And for the record I’ve done both- care and not care about people. I’d chose to care, but I should probably be more choosy about who I care for. But I prefer machines over people any day.”

“One allows for perfect control, the other isn’t yours to attempt to control,” Stephen says and Tony nods.

“Exactly,” he says. They sit in silence for some time before Tony speaks again. “Sorry about the fortune cookie thing.”

Stephen raises an eyebrow, “do you still think I sound like a fortune cookie?” he asks.

“Yeah, kind of,” Tony admits though he at least has the decency to look somewhat ashamed of this.

“Then you’re really sorry,” Stephen tells him.

“Okay, in my defense I don’t know of any other kind of cookie that tells bad fortunes and fortune cookie has fortune _and_ cookie in the name,” he says and Stephen laughs despite his annoyance at the comment. “It didn’t really occur to me that you’re… you know, Asian. From Nepal, I’m guessing?”

He nods, “my grandparents immigrated here, and I chose to go to Nepal specifically thanks to that ancestry. Not that it worked out in my favor- white Americans will never let me forget where I’m from, but god knows that’s not Nepal. I have no connection to the people there. And for the record you don’t need to actively be thinking ‘he’s Asian, make a bad joke about an Asian cookie’. Looking at my face would have been enough of a connection. Trust me- I know. I get all kinds of stupid questions up to and including ‘is your penis tiny’?” Of all the stereotypes he had to encounter that and the one where he was good at math irritated him the most. First- he was _horrible_ at math outside of its use in pharmaceuticals and he had to _work_ to be any good at that, and suggesting an entire _continent_ of people had tiny penises made no logical sense.

Tony frowns, “why are people so obsessed with dicks?” he asks.

“What do you mean?” Stephen asks.

“Rhodey gets weird dick comments too, except people have the opposite concern. Just saying that’s really weird, and no one seems concerned with my penis so that makes things extra weird,” he says and Stephen snorts.

“Probably because you have like eight sex tapes- we’ve all seen it. Plus there was that headline in the late nineties, that ‘Stark Naked’ one. You seem to really like your birthday suit,” he says and Tony throws back his head and laughs.

“Yeah I guess. And people filming you having sex and not telling you about it and releasing it on the internet sounds better than racism anyways,” he says.

Stephen wrinkles his nose, “I think that’s relative. Racism is awful obviously, but I don’t think that counts as… better.” That sounded rather violating to him, though the way Tony talks about it- like this was something normal- was what made it more disgusting.

He shrugs, “whatever, people wanted their fifteen minutes of fame and got it. Point is I still think you sound like a bad inspirational speaker, but I’m sorry about the unintentional racism.”

He can’t help but snicker, “sorry, that sounds so absurd to me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone phrase it like that. But to be fair I think I owe you an apology more I was owed one. I thought… I thought telling you about being my soul mate would distract you from learning, that it would add one more thing for you to worry about. To be honest I think that it would have been more of a distraction to me than you.” And there was the fact that his last soul mate walked out on him however deserved that was. He’s never been good with people and as per his usual he avoided something that could have resulted in his failing.

They sit in silence with that for some time before Tony breaks it- a habit of his apparently. “What did you think when ‘Merchant of Death’ appeared on you?” he asks.

Stephen lifts an eyebrow because Tony looks troubled, haunted actually. “I didn’t think much of it- you make weapons and some people were bound to disagree with that. It was a natural extension of you life,” he says.

His response seems to shake Tony, and surprise him. “That’s… that’s _it_? You weren’t… I don’t know, disgusted?”

Like he was with his past self, Stephen would bet. He shakes his head, “no Tony, I wasn’t. It never occurred to me to think less of you for it either- like I said, it was just a natural progression from your position.” It didn’t help that Stephen didn’t care for politics and rarely looked into them outside the scope of medicine. Of course he only cared about what directly impacted him, probably much the same way Tony had in his youth.

“Seriously? You thought _nothing_ of that?” he asks in disbelief. “Didn’t you even consider what I did for a living?”

“Of course I did, but I had already decided that anyone who used the name ‘Iron Man’ was an idiot and not worth my time. I didn’t give thought to your business or you because I had written you off,” he says.

For a long moment Tony just stares before he bursts out laughing. “Oh my _god_ , seriously?” he asks Stephen frowns at his reaction but Tony continues laughing. “I… I had written you off too because anyone who calls themselves _sorcerer supreme_ had to be a fucking lunatic,” he squeezes out when he finally regains control over himself.

Stephen starts laughing at the absurdity of this whole thing and Tony joins back in. This was how Hope found them some time later, still laughing about how weirdly similar their situations were.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I recently finished writing this! That's the good news. The bad news is that the ending is _very_ open. Much more open than I leave literally any story I've ever written and I have no sequel planned. So uh, sorry my guys lol.

He and Stephen had a _lot_ in common, Tony learns. Stephen shared a history of being selfish in his youth, had a thing for throwing money around, and also had a habit of pushing everyone who was close to him away all while spending most of his time talking about himself. He also learns that Stephen has another soul mate, Christine, who had left him some year and a half ago thanks to his attitude. Rhodey had looked downright horrified at this but Hope looked sympathetic to Christine. Probably because she was aware that dealing with people like Stephen or Tony isn’t easy. Dealing with anyone who refused to admit they had a problem all the while acting like they were perfect wasn’t easy. Rhodey just had a shocking level of patience, loyalty, and integrity. Christine, it seemed, simply knew when to give up on someone with no interest in improvement and Tony couldn’t blame her for that. His own experiences with Stephen told him he was slow to grow as a person and an ass to boot.

“Have you been to a doctor lately?” Stephen asks.

“Yeah, not long ago,” Tony lies at the same time Rhodey snorts and says, “no.” Tony shoots Rhodey an annoyed look at his betrayal but Rhodey doesn’t look sorry whatsoever.

Stephen’s eyebrows climb, “you have heart problems and a _highly_ unusual set of circumstances around them and you don’t visit a doctor regularly?” he asks.

“I go sometimes,” Tony says in his own defense but Rhodey talks over him.

“No, he doesn’t because he’s got a death wish,” he says.

“Do not, Rhodey is just whining,” Tony says.

Rhodey looks offended, “I am not, Tony just doesn’t want to admit to not going to the doctors.”

“He never goes,” Hope confirms and Tony flips her off.

Stephen presses his fingers to his temples. “Tony you should be being monitored regularly. When is the last time you visited a doctor?” he asks.

He looks pretty disappointed when Tony has to think about that for a moment. “When he got the reactor removed,” Rhodey answers for him.

“Oh come on, I’ve seen people after that,” Tony says though he wasn’t actually sure he had. Actually he was fairly certain that he skipped out on most if not all of his follow up appointments post surgery too. Pepper would call someone if he died randomly, she was reliable like that and besides, he would notice if something went wrong. It was only his heart that’d be failing. “I’m pretty sure I’ve run into a medic or two post-mission,” he says in his own defense. It was probably the only one he had but Rhodey was still rolling his eyes at him.

“EMTs don’t count, Tony,” Stephen snaps.

“I don’t like doctors okay, they freak me out. What kind of freak wants to go digging around in human bodies? That’s fucking weird,” he says, fully intending to offend Stephen with that comment. He succeeds because Stephen puffs up, clearly ready to defend himself when Wong steps in.

“Stephen!” he says in a sharp tone, drawing Stephen’s attention immediately. “You were supposed to be back in Nepal two hours ago!” he tells him, head poking out of a circle of orange sparks.

Stephen gives him a sheepish smile, “I slept in.”

Wong looks irritated with this. “You see what I have to deal with? The least she could have done was leave me with someone punctual,” he mumbles, stepping back through his ring of sparks. Rhodey gives Tony a confused look and Tony tells him he’ll explain later in a low tone. Truth be told he wasn’t sure what he had to explain given that all he knew was some rando named the Ancient One used to be around and took a liking to Stephen. That was all Rhodey was going to get, he guessed.

“Alright, seems how Wong has got his panties in a bunch we should go. And when we get there I’m going to look you over, Tony, because the creepy doctor who likes to play around in human bodies thinks someone with major heart problems should get regular checkups,” he says, making a mocking face at Tony, who does it right back.

“I swear to god they’re three years old,” Rhodey mumbles.

“They’re made for each other,” Hope tells him, laughing.

“Soul mates,” Rhodey agrees, rolling his eyes. Hope steps through Stephen’s portal and Rhodey follows behind her.

*

“So,” Tony says, dodging Stephen to look out over the courtyard of the Sanctum. “How come everyone here speaks English? I mean we’re in Nepal, wouldn’t it make more sense to speak Nepali?” he asks. The students clearly preferred it with Wong but only spoke English to Stephen.

Stephen sighs, “I can’t speak Nepali worth a damn. My mother claims I used to be fluent as a child- my grandparents’ English wasn’t the best so they usually spoke their native language- but there’s no evidence for it now.”

Tony grins, “like how bad is bad, I kind of want to hear it,” he says. Not that he knew Nepali, but it was a useful distraction to avoid Stephen poking at him like some kind of science experiment.

“Bad enough that when I asked Wong for a book he was very confused because what I actually said was ‘that book is a bat pussy’,” he says. He probably would have continued talking but Tony bursts out laughing because that was better than he thought. Learning new languages was always an adventure, but that had to be one of the funniest mix-ups he’s heard. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up but Wong was deeply confused until I repeated it in English. So I stick with that and most everyone here knows at least a little of the language so it works. Now stop trying to distract me and get over here.”

Tony squints at him, “do you even still have a medical license?” he asks, skeptical.

From the smug look on Stephen’s face Tony wasn’t going to like the answer. “I renewed it right before my hands got destroyed so yes, I have it for another two weeks. Now sit down,” he tells him.

Well there went his excuse of only dealing with a licensed doctor not that he wouldn’t try to wiggle out of that too. He briefly considers trying to make one of those portal thingies again but Stephen points out he didn’t have an ugly plank ring, obviously seeing the thought on Tony’s face, so instead he eyes Stephen’s. “Try it, Rocky,” Stephen says and Tony laughs.

“You probably wouldn’t want that, I’m pretty stubborn and I pretty much always get what I want,” he says honestly. People said he didn’t pay attention but that was only half true. He paid plenty of attention, but he only ever retained knowledge of things he cared about or things that were useful. It made him successful in life though he doubted that’d help him snag Stephen’s ugly ring.

“Coincidentally so do I. Now sit,” Stephen tells him.

Tony takes a step towards the window behind him. “I’d like to remind you the last time we came in contact you punched my soul into another dimension,” he points out.

Stephen rolls his eyes, which so was not a good sign. “I told you it wasn’t another dimension,” he says.

“Sure, that makes me feel better,” Tony says lightly, shaking his head at the pure stupidity of that comment. And people thought _he_ was obtuse, Stephen took that to a whole new level.

“Well the fact that the last time we came in contact was actually when I carried you back here post being attacked by Mordo _should_ make you feel better,” he says, that annoyingly smug look back on his face.

It didn’t make him feel better but he wasn’t wrong about saving Tony’s ass, and he’s been helpful with saving Rhodey and Hope. He also had a bad habit of hoarding useful information though. Tony sighs, “Look, I just really hate doctors, alright? Leave me be.”

Stephen sighs and leans against his version of a makeshift hospital bed. It didn’t look much more comfortable than anything Tony would find in a hospital. “Under normal circumstances I would Tony but you really do have unusual heart issues and it would be unethical to let you walk around without some kind of knowledge that your heart isn’t about to crap out on you,” he says.

Tony snorts, “your ethics are experimental,” he says. At least according to Wong, or Mordo though Tony had far more trust for one than the other.

“Experimental but informed. At least in medicine- you can’t really experiment on people before you read the warnings in medical school the way you can here with magic and then get yelled at for messing up the natural order of things because you turned back time on an apple. The point is I’m trying to look out for you,” he says.

That wasn’t actually something Tony doubted. In his weird, Stephen way this probably was him helping but Tony has never been fond of the medical establishment. Or most any establishment that wasn’t one he built himself. “I know, but I think I’d notice if there was something wrong with my heart. I noticed when I was being poisoned.”

“And presumably didn’t get medical assistance, which probably would have been beneficial. Look Tony I understand the bizarre dislike of doctors, I’ve been a doctor for a long time, but I’m not pressing my point because I have any desire to poke and prod at you and make you uncomfortable. I’m pressing because you likely _won’t_ know something is wrong with your heart until you’re either dead or having a heart attack or worse. So please sit down or at least answer some questions,” Stephen says- almost pleads actually.

Tony takes the out Stephen offered him whether he intended it or not. “What questions?” he asks.

“Like anything unusual happening lately, anything that might indicate that your body is doing something it shouldn’t be,” he says. Vague at best, Tony thinks, but in his defense he had a whole body to work with. Bodies, like machines, were pretty complicated systems and it was hard to narrow things down.

He shrugs, “not really,” he says.

“So your sleep habits are normal, your appetite is fine, no lightheadedness, no tight feelings in your chest, numb limbs, abdominal pain, nothing?” Stephen asks, raising an eyebrow when Tony frowns at him. “I’m going to assume the surprised look on your face makes that a no. What did I list that applies to you- outside of your obvious mental instability,” he says.

“Excuse you I’m mentally stable I just get panicky sometimes, leave it be. And honestly most of those things but I’ve never slept normal- when I was a kid doctors said my brain moved too fast and I had too many ideas, which made it hard to fall asleep. That’s probably still true. That and probably PTSD. My chest feels tight all the time but it did with the reactor too- figured that was normal for it to do now-“ Stephen smacks his palm over his forehead and Tony flips him off before continuing. “My left arm has been kind of weird lately but I think that’s because Wanda threw like seven cars at me and three of them landed on my arm. In the suit- obviously. Or you know, I wouldn’t have an arm. And I think the abdominal pain was caused by Steve slamming his shield into my chest to break the reactor in the suit but I guess it as been awhile so maybe not.”

Stephen lets out a long, drawn out sigh. “Nothing is wrong except _everything_! Really, Tony?”

“What? This is all normal for me now, it’s been happening for at least a couple months. Figured you wanted new stuff,” he says in his own defense.

Stephen rubs his temples in clear annoyance. “You’re impossible. And your heart is _not_ supposed to do that! Sit down!”

*

After several more hours of pestering, much to Tony’s annoyance, Stephen decides Tony should get a second opinion because he isn’t a cardiologist, which Tony does not take well. Rhodey looks amused at this but Stephen was plotting some way to get him to a fucking hospital without him knowing until it was too late. Like taking a dog to the vet.

“Whatever you’re thinking it’s never going to work. The fact that he let you check him out is a miracle on its own. Just leave him be because he won’t do anything he doesn’t want to, never has and pushing him only results in him resenting you for it. Take it from years of experience,” Rhodey says.

Well if he didn’t get his damn heart checked me might not _live_ to resent Stephen for pushing him anyways. “He has several problems he needs to get examined. Those things include but aren’t limited to heart problems, potential healing problems with what I think started as cracked ribs, something is obviously wrong with his left arm or possibly his _brain_ but I don’t have equipment here to scan him, and then some. What am I supposed to do, just let him _die_?” he asks. Because there were several conditions that would result in Tony’s imminent death if he had them and Stephen didn’t want to chance it.

Rhodey shakes his head, “it might sound nuts but I’m pretty sure Tony is so stubborn even Death won’t fuck with him. Seriously, he survived Afghanistan, Obadiah, the reactor poisoning him, two super soldiers nearly killing him and leaving him for dead in a frozen waste land, being injected with an experimental serum that could have made him overheat and blow up, and then some. Death just doesn’t stick to Tony,” he says.

Stephen frowns, “experimental serum?” he asks. Most of Tony’s life was public so Stephen had been able to track injuries well enough but he hadn’t heard about _that_. You’d think it would be common knowledge especially with all the efforts there has been to recreate the super soldier serum that Steve Rogers was injected with. So what happened to the news coverage there?

Rhodey waves him off, “he cured himself and Pepper, that’s not really anything to worry about,” he says.

Actually yes it was. “He has no medical training and I highly doubt he knows how to make vaccines, what makes you think this _hasn’t_ had an affect on his health?” he asks.

“Probably the giant hole he used to have in his chest. You should look it up some time, it was a lot bigger in person,” he says. “If he managed to survive that, I doubt a slightly messed up vaccine would kill him.”

Yes Stephen already looked up Tony’s reactor but public knowledge with a medical slant was non-existent. People knew plenty about how Tony got injured, but there wasn’t much on the injuries themselves at least from a medical perspective. “What affects did that have on his health, aside from the eventual poisoning?” he asks. And he cured that too, Stephen remembers. Curious how Tony seemed to have a strange amount of medical knowledge for someone who never studied medicine. Even if he did read up on things he would never know enough to do the things he has, even Stephen didn’t know enough to make vaccines. His knowledge was how they worked, not how to make them.

“From what I understood aside from keeping it clean and all that it reduced his lung capacity. To seventy percent I think he said, not that he ever acted like his lungs were thirty percent crushed,” Rhodey says. Yes, Stephen knew that too given his hero history. “Why are you making that face? I don’t know what it means but it means something,” he says, leaning forward in curiosity. No, more like worry- likely for Tony’s health.

He shakes his head, “I’m just… curious as to how Tony got all this medical knowledge. He hardly studied medicine,” he points out.

Something obviously clicks with Rhodey because Stephen watches a light bulb go off in his head. “Oh, there was a doctor with him in Afghanistan. Uh… something Yinsen I think, I don’t really remember,” he says, frowning.

“Ho Yinsen,” Stephen says immediately, and he immediately knows what serum Rhodey was talking about too thanks to Yinsen’s involvement with one Maya Hansen. He shakes his head because Hansen was, at least to him and he was sure Christine would agree, little more than a mad scientist. An intelligent mad scientist no doubt, but that only served to make her dangerous instead of stupid. Quite like Tony in a way.

Rhodey nods, “yeah, Ho Yinsen. You know him?” he asks, obviously recognizing Stephen’s reaction.

He nods, “he’s a brilliant surgeon, of course I know him. We’ve met, several times actually, how did he met Tony?” he asks. “Never mind, he did quite a lot of work in war torn areas, it seems reasonable that the terrorists that picked Tony up also had him in captivity. The timing is _impeccable_ though; especially considering Yinsen is quite likely the only doctor even _capable_ of keeping a person alive after an injury like Tony’s. It helped that he has an engineering background.” Impeccable didn’t cover how good Tony’s luck would have to be to get _Yinsen_ of all people in that cave.

Unbelievable how everything perfectly aligned in his life to either make it or break it in seemingly equal parts. Stephen has never met a person whose luck was that good and that bad simultaneously. In one instant Tony had the most qualified doctor in the world to tend to his injuries, in the next he runs a test on a rock with a science buddy and early ends the world. The whiplash had to hurt.

Rhodey’s eyebrows lift, “more qualified than you?” he asks, a slight edge to his voice that Stephen doesn’t quite know what to make of so he ignores it in favor of focusing on Rhodey’s question.

There would have been a time when Stephen scoffed at the idea of anyone, Yinsen included, being a better doctor than him but since then he’s learned a little humility. “I’m sure I could have kept Tony alive, probably for an extended period of time. But I never would have attempted that contraption in his chest, and I’m _certain_ it wouldn’t have been functional if I did. We both would have died in those caves long before anyone got the opportunity to torture Tony into making weapons and a grand escape in a suit made of scraps.” He was a competent doctor yes, certainly one of the best at least in his field if he wasn’t the best, but his specialty was not the heart and it most certainly wasn’t engineering despite having done a semester in an engineering program. His parents wanted him to pursue the career and he had the grades for it, but he hated it and so he switched into medical school as soon as he could.

“Wow, you aren’t as much of an arrogant prick as you used to be,” Rhodey says with a weird amount of dislike in his tone. It takes a moment for him to realized the reason it wasn’t there before was because Rhodey was discussing Tony, not him. Rhodey obviously had a deep love for Tony but it clearly didn’t extend to him not that he expected it to. But he didn’t expect outright rudeness either.

He raises an eyebrow, “okay?” he says, unsure how to react to this. It wasn’t as if Rhodey was wrong, but it seemed odd to hold his particularly dominant traits against him when Tony shared every single one of them.

“I’ve seen videos of you doing a talk or two, you think highly of yourself,” Rhodey says in a tone that suggests this is a bad thing but all Stephen can manage is a laugh.

“No more arrogant than Tony is about his own skills. If you want to dislike me, by all means, but don’t pick such a stupid reason. You nave no problem with arrogance or self-importance, if you did you never would have survived Tony. Say what you mean,” he says, briefly surprised by his insight into the situation. Usually it took him longer than that to catch on. But Rhodey clearly disliked something about him, something that may or may not be related to arrogance, but it wasn’t that in itself. Like he pointed out, if it was arrogance he had an issue with he never would have made it this far in a friendship with Tony Stark in his pre hero days. His arrogance may be all but gone now, but it certainly wasn’t when he was in his early twenties.

Rhodey seems almost as surprised as Stephen is on his quick insight but it passes quickly. “I mean you have a habit of thinking your way is the best way, and that isn’t going to fly with Tony.”

“Because I want him to actually get medical assistance?” Stephen asks, frowning. Was _that_ what this was about? Because it seemed odd to be pissed off with making sure his soul mate wasn’t about to drop dead of some unknown medical condition. Actually that seemed like something Rhodey should be invested in, not against.

His guess was wrong because Rhodey rolls his eyes, “no dumbass, giving him magical explanations for the shit in his life. Prophet, really? Is that the best you could manage? And this indulging his alien fear? Stop that, its irrational and he knows it so stop freaking him out,” he says.

Now _that_ throws him for a loop. But as usual he doesn’t react the way Rhodey expects because his laugh, a deep laugh from his gut, clearly confuses Rhodey.

“First of all I didn’t come up with the prophet theory _Wong_ did, I simply said it felt like there was something already in his mind when Wanda tampered with it so at _least_ get your facts straight. And two- his alien fear isn’t illogical; they’ve been back several times since New York. It stands to reason they’ll be back again. And even if that wasn’t true I _fail_ to see how your method of ignoring the problem is helping- the man was so afraid a simple vision sent him off the fucking deep end and he nearly ended the world. He needed someone to listen and clearly that person wasn’t you or the rest of the Avengers, you all called him crazy and then yelled at him for acting it. You know Tony better than I ever will I’m sure, but don’t lecture me on how I choose to deal with him when your methods have proven _disastrous_ ,” he snaps, shocked at the level of anger in his words.

But he meant them all and he wasn’t about to take them back.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the Civil War discussion finally happens. The first and only time it appears in any meaningful way in this story.

Tony curls up on his bed, looking out the window in his room. Nepal was pretty; he’d give the country that even if he missed home. Stephen did too, he could tell. Rhodey would probably like the vacation, he’s been dying to do literally anything since his injury but between physical therapy, healing time, and lack of opportunity he hasn’t been able to do much. This would at least be a nice chance for him to do something that didn’t make him feel… limited. He never said anything but Tony knew he felt the wheel chair was confining even if he accepted being in it. Tony didn’t much think his new method of travel should be any more limiting than legs but he also wasn’t in Rhodey’s situation. It was easy for him to look on the bright side when he didn’t suffer a nasty injury to his spine that he was unlikely to recover from.

But maybe this would serve as a good way to show Rhodey that things didn’t need to be as… limited as he felt they were. Tony didn’t much think the same for himself but he also knew that Stephen and Wong were his best bet to not end up getting himself, Rhodey, and Hope killed. So for now he’d stick around.

Its some time later when he hears a knock on the door. He looks over at it and for a moment considers saying nothing but sighs, “what?” he asks loud enough for whomever to hear on the other side of the thick wood.

Stephen takes this as an invitation into his space because he opens the door and steps inside. “You didn’t show up to this morning’s lesson,” he notes. “I thought I should offer you your own space to learn, you’re probably better at magic than the rest of the class anyways.”

Tony snorts, more like Stephen was more willing to teach his soul mate than people he considered not worth his time and efforts. Even if he was sure Stephen didn’t actively know that’s what he was thinking. “I’m not learning magic,” he says, shaking his head.

Stephen lets out an annoyed noise, “oh not this again, come on, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get out of bed. I’m not letting you wallow because Mordo is an asshole,” he tells Tony, hands planted firmly on his hips.

“I’m not wallowing, I’m just refusing to do something stupid. Again,” he says. It was always situations like this, ones that allowed him an opportunity to reach beyond what he knew, and he never failed to fuck it up.

Its clear Stephen doesn’t have the patience to deal with this from the look on his face alone, so Tony is surprised when he doesn’t immediately ignore his assessment of the situation. “What do you mean something stupid?” he asks. It comes out in an almost gentle tone that contradicted heavily with his annoyed features and it occurs to Tony that Stephen had a shit poker face despite the fact that he was obviously trying not to act as irritated as he felt with Tony.

“I mean that every time I find something bigger than myself I have a near compulsive need to mess with it, and every time I do that something bad happens. I don’t agree with this Mordo’s methods but he does have a point in saying that maybe the natural order of things shouldn’t be tampered with,” he says. Every time he did it went horribly, disastrously wrong.

Something in what he says must trigger something for Stephen though because he gives up all pretenses of hiding his feelings from Tony and scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Mordo is a fool and a hypocrite. If I didn’t break the natural order the whole world would have been consumed by Dormammu, rules have their place but breaking them has their place too,” he snaps.

“What the hell is a ‘Dormammu’?” Tony asks, frowning.

“Something you don’t know about thanks to me using an infinity stone to manipulate time. I used it to turn back time on a massive destruction in Hong Kong and New York, and I trapped Dormammu in a time loop. Dormammu is an interdimensional being of immense power from the dark dimension- he would have destroyed earth, _was_ destroying earth, should he have actually succeeded in entering this world,” he adds when Tony still looks confused.

“I had no choice, I trapped him in a time loop and said I came to bargain,” he says, stopping for a moment and looking off into the distance with a look on his face that Tony knew intimately well, especially in the last few years. It was the look you got when you saw too much.

He takes a deep breath, “Dormammu obviously had no intention of bargaining with me so he killed me. But the loops just continued, and he kept killing me over and over an over again. Eventually he got bored of that- I could have kept the spell going for infinity, we were both prisoners until I broke the spell so I made him a deal. He took his Zealots, the people who brought him here to begin with, and leave earth and I’d release him from the loop. If he didn’t we were back to killing and being killed. I understand that what I did was exceptional and that toying with time is dangerous at best, but every rule has an exception so get off your ass and _learn_ ,” he tells Tony, passion underscoring his words.

Tony just stares because Stephen had just told him earth suffered an attack from an _interdimensional being,_ which he trapped in a _time loop_ that resulted in Stephen essentially living a deadly version of Groundhog Day. _Sometimes failure is the best way to succeed_. Now his words made so much more sense given the experience that inspired it. He felt like a real asshole for comparing what sounded like an extremely traumatic event to a fucking _fortune cookie_ now. “Holy fuck,” he says because that was all he had right now.

“It wasn’t pleasant,” Stephen says, probably uttering one of the most understated sentences in human history.

“How long were you in that loop?” Tony asks softly.

The question surprises Stephen but he shrugs, “by my estimates probably close to a century,” he says and Tony’s jaw drops. “Interdimensional beings take a long time to bore.” Now he knew how people felt when he made jokes about the shitty things that happened to him because he didn’t even know how to _respond_ to that. Stephen gets bored faster than this Dormammu guy though because he sighs, “alright Tony, now that we’ve established that sometimes playing with fire won’t land you burned get up, you have things to learn. Things that are obviously not messing with time and making loops, I was thinking something more basic. Like a shield,” he says, smiling a little but Tony shakes his head.

“No. That was some… I don’t know what that was, but I’m still not learning magic. I’m tired of trying to do grandiose things to try and save the world, or myself, or someone I care about when it all ends the same way. Badly. I’ve went this route in a dozen different ways or more Stephen, and I’m done with it,” he says honestly.

Stephen pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. “You want to help people Tony, I know you do. You want to save people from HYDRA, or aliens, or whatever. And this, magic, is how you do it. There are people all over the world right now, people like me, who are protecting this world from the dangers that lie beyond it. You can do that too. It’s not grand; you don’t even get credit for what you did if you do it right. No one knows about Dormammu because I stopped it from happening entirely. This is what you were meant to do,” he says, pleads actually. He’s leaning forward with his hands pressed together almost like a prayer but to who Tony didn’t know.

But he shakes his head again, “no. This isn’t what I was meant to do; this is what _you_ were meant to do. I wasn’t meant to meddle in any of this… stuff,” he says for lack of a better word.

“Tony-” Stephen starts but someone interrupts.

“Teach him to fight,” Wong says, opening the door wider. “I didn’t meant to eavesdrop, but I overheard you talking. He doesn’t need to learn magic Stephen, but he does need to learn how to fight.”

Stephen wants to argue, Tony can tell, but after holding Wong’s gaze for several moments he sighs and deflates a little. “You were meant for more than this, Tony, and you know it. You’ve _always_ known it. But for now I’ll leave it alone,” he says.

Tony relaxes a little. “Please don’t tell me we’re learning Kung Fu,” he says. Wong and Stephen exchange a look before rolling their eyes.

“We’re not in a bad movie about stereotyped Asian people, Tony. Its standard combat training,” Stephen tells him and Tony laughs, doubling over with his arms around his waist like that was the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “Honestly, I will never understand you,” Stephen mumbles.

*

He knew how to fight already, at least a little, but his training was less formal and more watching videos of Steve and especially Natasha fight and figuring out the mathematical angles they moved at and mimicking them. He had knowledge on how to hold himself and how to punch from boxing with Happy, but ultimately he wasn’t exactly the best at combat without the suit to enhance his strength, something Stephen discovers quickly.

Currently he was trapped by Stephen’s arms, one around his waist pinning his left arm and the other around his shoulders with his back pressed to Stephen’s chest. He was annoyed to find that the height difference between them was almost comical, something Stephen capitalized on earlier by telling Tony that he blended in with Nepal’s general height better than Stephen did despite his heritage from the country. Which was true, everyone here was freakishly short compared to America and Stephen was basically a giant. Hell, even in America he was tall. That didn’t mean Tony appreciated jokes about them basically being a different species, but he was sufficiently trapped by Stephen for the time being.

His right arm was free and his hand was wrapped around Stephen’s wrist in some desperate attempt to not be held captive when something occurs to him. He had no idea if it would work, but it was worth it to give it a shot so he forces himself to relax and all but releases Stephen’s wrist from his grip. He feels Stephen relax a little too, poor bastard, as Tony moves his hand up Stephen’s wrist in a slow, almost romantic gesture. Stephen lets it happen, letting out a small breath as Tony’s finger tips drag along the back of his hand until he got to the part he actually cared about. He grabs one of Stephen’s fingers and pulls it back, earning a loud scream from Stephen for his efforts as he lets go of Tony and releases an impressive string of expletives in five different languages.

“Why are you like this?” he yells at Tony, half crouched over his own hand and giving Tony a look so poisonous it was a wonder he didn’t drop dead on the spot.

“The intent was to escape, which I did so…” he says, raising an eyebrow.

“Well you could have managed without aggravating my already injured hand!” Stephen yells and Tony has that ‘oh shit’ feeling because he forgot about that pesky bit of information.

“Uh,” he says, stepping towards Stephen but Stephen quickly steps away.

“Oh no, that is quite enough from you today!” he says, still curled protectively around his hand.

“I forgot about your hands,” Tony says, “sorry!”

Stephen doesn’t let up in his poisonous look, “my hands are my entire _life_ , how could you forget about them!”

“Uh, because they don’t matter to me the same way they matter to you?” Tony asks more than states. Hands were hardly something he focused on even if yeah, logically a surgeon needed hands to work and that’s why Stephen was no longer a surgeon but it wasn’t like Tony spent every waking moment thinking of Stephen’s hands like Stephen did. He steps closer and Stephen steps away again, still glaring at Tony though with a little less heat now. “I’m not going to injure you more, stop trying to run away,” he says and steps closer. This time Stephen doesn’t go anywhere even if he still looks highly suspicious as Tony approaches and holds out his hand.

“If you expect me to just give you my hand all willy nilly you are _mistaken_ ,” Stephen tells him and Tony snorts.

“Didn’t take you for the type to use the phrase ‘willy nilly’. Give me your hand,” he tells Stephen, who debates on it for several long seconds before he holds out the hand Tony accidentally injured. Tony takes the extremity in his hands carefully and starts gently massaging it, “there, not so bad, hmm?” he asks as Stephen continues to look grumpy and annoyed.

“You felt me up,” he accuses.

Tony shrugs, “didn’t think I’d get much opportunity to use my sex appeal in an actual fight. Besides, gently touching your hand is _not_ feeling you up,” he says.

“Still wasn’t fair,” Stephen mumbles and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Since when is fighting fair a goal?” he asks and Stephen raises an eyebrow.

“You actually don’t fight fair?” he asks. Tony stares at Stephen like he’s an idiot.

“No dumbass, you win a fight by kicking them when they’re down. Besides, in my line of work they don’t stay down long so it’s somewhat necessary. That and you’re fighting villains, they aren’t going to fight fair with you and you shouldn’t bother fighting fair with them.” The goal was to win the fight, not to play nice and hope that the other person knows the rules and plays by them too. That was a rulebook on how to die fast with a supposed sense of heroics.

“That’s not… that isn’t… that just lacks honor,” Stephen says, shaking his head as he dismisses Tony’s line of thought.

He rolls his eyes. “Stephen, you’re already throwing your limbs about in an attempt to hurt someone, even if you throw a mechanized suit into the mix. That’s as base as you get- contrary to popular belief there is no honor to be found in _any_ kind of fight. But fair fights are for idiots or regulated competitions, not for the real world. You don’t win battles by pretending to have honor and playing by a set of rules that are inexplicably attached to a moral system despite the fact that you _know_ your opponent won’t follow the same guidelines. You fight them according to _their_ guidelines- which is win at any cost. Unless there are civilians around, then obviously get them out,” he adds.

Stephen considers this for a moment, looking at Tony massaging his hand as he does so. “That’s an odd and seemingly at contradictory stance to your opinion on the Accords,” he says eventually and Tony laughs.

“No it isn’t. When you’re in the middle of battle laws don’t matter, the person you’re fighting has already broken the law and in that moment you need to do what you need to in order to stop them and bring them in. Its everything before, after, and in between that the Accords would apply to. Like Steve’s traipsing all over the world looking for Barnes. Things like that are what the Accords should be designed to stop. There was no reason for that aside from his own personal gain, and no reason for me to fund that search or participate in it with the other Avengers aside from Steve’s personal gain. It’s right for the world to want that to be illegal because in those moments _we_ were the villains breaking laws and the world did what we do in a battle- whatever they needed to to get us to stop.” Unpopular opinion these days but he stood by it. There were problems with the Accords; there were problems with _any_ law that was experimental and new. It was a starting point that he had been willing to work with and look where that got him. Nowhere good, anyways.

“What exactly about the Accords did Steve protest to?” Stephen asks, frowning. “I mean I heard all the slander, and the protests of him in countries that weren’t America, and a bunch of other things about you in particular. But what _did_ Steve disagree with exactly?”

Good question, one the press in America never asked because they all assumed Captain America was right all the time. The exception was Christine Everhart but she was skeptical of anyone with too much power and for good reason. No one had a perfect track record but people were almost totally content to ignore that aside from a small minority of Americans and a decent portion of people elsewhere in the world.

“To be honest he didn’t protest anything in particular, he just wanted to know who was calling the shots and if we could say no to an order. They were good questions, but it wasn’t a real disagreement with anything the Accords actually said. More like questions related to how the law would play out, not the law itself. I had my issues but I also had a team of lawyers picking it apart to make sure that the laws made sense. Steve never referenced anything in particular about the document and then it was the Find Bucky Show after that.” Any semblance of an argument was gone and it was, just like it had been for years up until that point, it became all about Bucky.

Stephen obviously doesn’t know what to make of that because his eyebrows draw together a little. “Alright. What were the issues you found?” he asks.

Tony lets out a small snort, “you already saw the fallout of that. The ‘jail without a trial’ thing was a biggie, but that’s considered unconstitutional according to U.S laws, and most other countries have a similar system in place that doesn’t allow you to be prosecuted before people hear the evidence of your indiscretions. Granted the whole world saw us all break the law but still, trials are necessary. There was a section that wanted to apply the law to all people with some kind of enhancement, but that makes no sense unless those people are acting like law enforcement like the Avengers were, and some other individual people. That, and SHIELD already has a list and according to their own reports they treat those people like shit so Phil Coulson’s support of Steve can be shoved _right_ up his ass. And there were no emergency clauses, which are needed in situations like New York.”

Three major problems wasn’t a lot, but they were all big issues. There were several other smaller things that needed to be addressed but those smaller problems weren’t on his radar until the trial thing was fixed and an emergency system was designed. Beyond that looking to keep people who the law wouldn’t apply to off any kind of list was a good place to go, and then they could fix everything else.

“Phil Coulson, why does that name sound familiar?” Stephen asks, confusion on his face as he tries to figure it out.

“He used to be Fury’s right hand man, now runs what pitiful remains there is of SHIELD. I can’t fucking _believe_ the cognitive dissonance even _needed_ to say Steve was right when he’s well documented in _still_ supporting his own shittier version of the Accords. Except his version is basically just a list and heavy monitoring of people who have abilities, not something borne out of actual concern for civilian safety,” Tony says, rolling his eyes. He had mostly stayed out of the media for Pepper’s sake at that point- his name was still on her company and he didn’t want to alienate her ability to run SI- but he had been fucking floored by that. So he called up an old friend but it turned out Christine Everhart already hunted down Phil’s previous opinions on pretty much everything and had already been working on an article flaming his ass.

She hadn’t exactly supported Tony, but he had been surprised to find that she didn’t write him off the way she usually did either. She had called him an irresponsible, arrogant moron but said that he was at least smart enough to recognize that when Steve wasn’t. Tony had taken an unholy amount of joy in her article on Phil even if he knew it was immature to. And after that he faded back into the walls of his home and focused on Rhodey. Pepper had later told him that she was both impressed and grateful for his restraint but truthfully he just didn’t have the energy to fight back anymore so he didn’t.

“Sounds like people only support Steve because of who he is, not what he believes in,” Stephen mumbles.

“I don’t disagree. So where do you sit?” Tony asks because everyone had an opinion and he might as well get Stephen’s over with now. Its been a long, _long_ time coming and he doubted there was ever a timeline where this conversation didn’t happen. It was hard for it not to when it ruled so much of Tony’s life now.

Stephen shrugs, “I’ve always found the Avengers useful but highly irresponsible. It doesn’t help that I’m a pacifist though,” he says with a weary smile that makes Tony raise an eyebrow in surprise. “Don’t give me that look, I’m a doctor, I took a Hippocratic Oath to help people, obviously I wouldn’t support whatever mess the Avengers were. No offense,” he adds and Tony laughs.

“Can’t be offended if its true,” he says. They don’t talk for awhile before Wong shows up, looking between them, obviously surprised. It takes a moment for Tony to realize why but when Wong looks between Stephen, his hand in Tony’s, and Tony the reason for his surprise is obvious.

“Well,” he says, “this is a pleasant surprise.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five chapter left, bois!
> 
> And we finally come back to Christine.

Christine considers the latest email she has gotten from Stephen, wondering if he even knew the depth of his feelings for Tony Stark of all people. Stephen never did do things small though so she supposed Tony was a fitting soul mate. She wondered why he still emailed her given that she never emailed back though, even after their brief encounter almost a year ago when she saved Stephen. The updates were nice, and an easy way to gauge Stephen’s moods at any given moment, but without responses they seemed pointless on his end. She never knew what to say back, but Stephen still persisted in his updates.

It was unusual of him given that he typically only did something to get attention- something else he had in common with Tony she supposed- so she found it out of character to send her updates when he got no attention for them. Nonetheless she read his emails and smiled when he seemed happy at least. Still arrogant and high on himself, but happy. Stephen apparently found Tony annoyingly suspicious, didn’t get along much with his best friend, and was annoyed to learn that Tony liked cats. Stephen wasn’t a pet person and Christine guesses that Tony must have an actual desire to own a cat if Stephen felt concerned enough to actually have feelings on the subject.

She sits back in her chair and looks out the window, noting the red and orange across the sky. It was beautiful and something of a rare sight for her these days. Most of the time she was at the hospital before sunrise and left after the sun went down. Occasionally though she’d catch daylight of some kind and today happened to be a day off for her. Glancing at Stephen’s email she found it almost amusing that it happened to come in at his favorite time of day here, though she had to wonder why he was up so late where he was. In Nepal it would be early morning, which, she supposed, would technically result in the same sort of sky. Stephen wasn’t at all a morning person though, which had always made early morning shifts amusing to her at least. No one else liked spending any kind of time with Stephen when he was in a bad mood but he rarely treated her as badly as he treated everyone else bad mood or no.

Looking back to the sky she wonders if maybe she should answer Stephen’s emails. It’s been some time since their falling out and she could see that Stephen has changed at least somewhat. Maybe meeting Tony would help him too for all she knew, he used to be quite arrogant himself before he seemingly overhauled his personality. Stephen could certainly benefit from doing some of that.

Staring at the computer she considers her options when an orange light casts a glow over her surroundings. Frowning she turns, finding one of those spark things Stephen stepped through the last time except it wasn’t Stephen standing in the middle of it, it was someone she didn’t recognize.

*

Wong holds several books in his hands when he knocks on Tony’s door, waiting patiently for the man to open the door. When he does he immediately notices the books and sighs, “I already told Stephen I didn’t want to learn magic,” he says bluntly and Wong shakes his head.

“I know, and I’m not here to convince you that you should. These books are on prophecy and they’re more... to help you understand your natural magic. I thought maybe it would be beneficial if you understood the feelings you got so you could act on them better, or choose not to act on them at all,” he tells Tony. Stephen was… heavy handed in his approach to teaching Tony magic; mostly in the way he decided that Tony _had_ to learn it. Thankfully Wong wasn’t emotionally obtuse and actually knew how to adjust his methods to different people so he thought this would be a good start.

Tony didn’t want to learn because he’s had terrible experiences with magic- every time something magical popped up in his life something terrible usually followed. It stood to reason that magic was the problem when the real problem was Tony’s lack of understanding. Stephen had already pointed this out but his method for doing that was yelling and insults, which _no one_ responded well to. So Wong thought that maybe appealing to Tony’s sense of reason and responsibility would be the best way to convince him that maybe he had an interest in magic after all. Besides, if nothing else it would genuinely be useful to Tony to know what exactly his natural magic was doing at any given time.

He clearly thinks the same because he watches Tony consider taking Wong’s offer. “What exactly does this entail?” he asks and Wong silently cheers. Stephen needed teaching lessons because clearly Tony wasn’t even remotely as pig headed as Stephen thought he was. He just needed a real reason to learn and some assurance that he couldn’t possibly screw up so bad the whole world would die. But no, Stephen couldn’t be bothered to learn some basic common sense.

“Meditation mostly,” Wong says and Tony immediately wrinkles his nose. He was more a man of action, that they all knew about him, so Wong understood the reaction. But it also left the impression that there wasn’t anything… tangible to the magic, which made it seem less dangerous. It was an easy way to ease Tony into things.

“Meditation? How’s that supposed to do… whatever it’s supposed to do?” he asks. Full of questions as always.

“The introspection allows you to focus on what you see and feel, which should give you a better grasp of the knowledge that’s being sent your way. Sometimes you’ll get more context for what you’re seeing or feeling too, or that’s what the texts say. I’ve only ever met one prophet and she was secretive,” he says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “this mysterious Ancient One I suppose? Fucking stupid name if you ask me,” he says.

Wong snorts and shakes his head, “yes that would be her. Truthfully I don’t even know how much she actually saw and what she learned to see through other magical means. Regardless most of being a prophet is essentially extrapolating some kind of conclusion from the data you’re given. Like reading numbers,” he says, drawing a connection to something Tony already knew well. Numbers were his life for a long time before he gave up being the CEO of Stark Industries. Stephen could learn a thing or two about that as well- drawing parallels between things people have already done and the knowledge they were about to take on. Sadly Stephen spent most of his time getting annoyed at his students because he was genuinely _terrible_ at teaching. Wong thanks whatever deity or deities might be out there that no one let him teach when he was a doctor- god only knows how disastrous _that_ would have been.

“And what am I supposed to do with the information after that?” he asks.

He shrugs, “most of what you’ll see are unavoidable events. So deal with the fallout.”

This has Tony raising his eyebrows, “no one tries to stop the things they see?” he asks.

Wong laughs, “of course they do, but you already know how that ends. The point of seeing the events isn’t to stop them; it’s to ensure that the least amount of damage possible happens afterwards. Or, if you’re very lucky, to prepare yourself for what is to come.” He suspected that the Ancient One knew about Dormammu and in teaching Stephen she left some kind of solution to the problem that had, by sheer chance, worked in her favor. And his own favor considering he had apparently _died_. He had no memory of that, just of material flying at him and then flying away as Stephen turned back time and turned back the destruction of Hong Kong in the mean time. Whatever doubts Wong had about Stephen as a person and as a sorcerer didn’t change his opinion that what Stephen did that day was the bravest thing Wong has ever seen a person do. He isn’t sure he’d have the sheer amount of courage and determination to die over and over and over again until he got what he wanted out of his attacker.

Tony sighs, “prophets are useless,” he mumbles.

“Prophets don’t have an excess of power,” Wong corrects. “And even then you’ll have far more power than most could ever achieve.” Seeing the future was no small feat not that he thought Tony would see it that way, not with his tendency to try and solve problems before they even happened.

“More power than Stephen?” he asks, grinning.

Wong shakes his head, letting out a soft laugh. “Always a pissing contest. But yes you have more raw power than Stephen. That doesn’t mean you’d make a better sorcerer though- that’s all in how much you’re willing to learn and how much effort you put into the magic. Though Stephen has quite a bit of raw power himself.” An impressive amount that had frustrated Wong when they first met thanks to Stephen’s incessant _whining_ about his damn hands.

Tony nods, “so all I have to do is literally nothing?” he asks, looking amused.

“Well, you have to meditate focusing on whatever images you think were relevant and important and hopefully you’ll get something from it,” he says.

“And if what I’m focusing on is irrelevant?” Tony asks.

“Then you’ll get nothing. Simple as that as far as I can tell,” Wong says.

“Damn, and here I was hoping to channel the next time I was destined to get laid,” Tony says and Wong laughs.

“If you ask Stephen nicely I’m sure he’ll oblige,” Wong says, giving his arm a reassuring pat after he rearranges the books he’s carrying.

That seems to throw Tony for a loop for a moment and Wong shakes his head, wondering how Stephen got a soul mate who was as clueless as he was. For all his suspicion and anger Tony didn’t seem disinterested in Stephen. Annoyed by him sure but that was a natural reaction to anyone with Stephen’s personality. Tony seemed to be warming up to him more recently too, perhaps due to Stephen letting down his walls a little.

“Uh, I didn’t consider that,” he mumbles more to himself than Wong. His eyebrows draw together for a moment before he speaks again. “Doesn’t Stephen have another soul mate?” he asks.

“Yes, someone named Christine- they aren’t on speaking terms though,” he says, unsure of where Tony was going with this. Stephen still kept in contact with her via email he was pretty sure, but they didn’t actually talk.

“If Mordo went after me to get to Stephen, and then went after Rhodey to get to me to get to Stephen, why has no one thought to get Christine?” he asks and Wong swears, shoving the books he was holding at Tony and taking off to go find Stephen.

*

They find Christine easily enough, Tony ran facial recognition through FRIDAY and had her scan all the camera footage she could hack into on short notice in New York, but something wasn’t right. “Why is she just sitting there?” Tony asks, frowning.

“Who cares? She’s potentially in danger and-” Stephen goes to walk away but Tony holds him back, earning an irritated look from Stephen.

“FRIDAY, how long has she been sitting there?” he asks. No one was stupid enough to sit in Central Park this late at night, certainly not a woman. Tony knew approximately three things about women and one of them was that nighttime was not a time they deemed safe. And any idiot knows Central Park at night isn’t a place to frolic. So why was Christine there?

“Two hours, sir,” the AI responds and Stephen gives Tony’s phone a _look_.

“If you tell me my AI is creepy I’m going to shut you down right now because one- I specifically coded her to not want to take over the world and to enjoy kitten videos on YouTube. And two, you have a sentient _cloak_ , you can’t judge creepy anymore,” Tony says. “Also this Christine thing is clearly a trap so is it possible to magic her out of there without having to have some kind of epic battle with your ex teacher?” Honestly he didn’t think anyone could be a worse teacher than Stephen but here they were.

“My cloak is not even comparable to your creepy AI. If you had to code it to not want to take over the world I think I’ve earned being suspicious of it. And the fact that it _enjoys_ anything is disturbing. And I don’t care if it’s a trap, someone has to go save her and I’m better at magic than Mordo anyways,” Stephen tells him.

Thankfully Wong holds him back when Stephen goes to take off again. “Don’t be stupid Stephen, he clearly doesn’t want to hurt her. She has time for you to think this through,” he points out.

“And he knew we’d find her fast- she’s only sitting in the middle of a tourist location,” Tony adds. “Which raises my suspicions. Not that it matters I guess, he can do that thing where the world spins and all the people disappear.”

“The mirror dimension, yes,” Stephen says dismissively and Tony frowns, wondering what the fuck that was. Wong looks disappointed in Stephen when he notes Tony’s confusion. “I don’t see why he’s gotten picky with who he hurts now, we know he’s left a string of bodies in his wake.”

“Because she hasn’t done anything, duh,” Tony says and Stephen squints at him a little.

“Does that _matter_ to a villain?” he asks.

“It does when your villain is obsessed with correcting the natural order and your current damsel hasn’t done anything to break it. He wants to lure you out, not go on a killing spree with no care to who he kills,” Tony says. Obviously.

“Oh what’s that matter?” Stephen snaps. “So its not okay to kill people if you don’t deem them guilty enough? Its not like Jonathan Pangborn did anything wrong.”

“He used magic to walk again, that was enough for Mordo,” Wong says and Tony is glad that Rhodey wasn’t around to hear that. Then _he’d_ probably try and find magical solutions to his life’s problems and that was the last thing he needed.

“Well what did Tony do?” Stephen asks, irritated.

“Toyed with that infinity stone,” he says. “Now stop getting worked up and relax a little, you’re clearly good at problem solving if your face off with Dormumutt is any indication so _think_ ,” Tony tells him.

Wong snorts and coughs, trying to cover his laugh. “Dormammu,” he corrects when Stephen gives him a _nasty_ look for laughing.

“Whatever, its irrelevant. So think Stephen, how can you get her out of there without causing a mess?” he asks. The quicker this was the easier it would be on everyone later, but especially the public and Christine. Tony feels bad for her for having gotten mixed up in all of this by doing little more than existing while connected to Stephen. Tony had at least earned his wrath; all Christine did was have the misfortune of being Stephen’s soul mate.

“There is little more to do than show up,” Stephen says, clearly frustrated.

“Why not just snatch her through one of those portal things? I mean theoretically you could open one right under her and have her fall through it to here, right?” he asks. That seemed like a better plan than potentially destroying Central Park. Tony so wasn’t going to pay for damages.

Wong considers this for a moment and nods, “its possible,” he says, “and not something Mordo would expect.”

“And if he follows her here?” Stephen asks, raising an eyebrow at Wong.

“Then we fight, obviously,” Wong replies. “But Tony’s more… evasive methods have merit. A rescue mission doesn’t need to be a disaster.”

*

Christine was cold and more than a little pissed though at Stephen or the guy who kidnapped her she wasn’t sure. All she has gathered in the last few hours was that Stephen was taking _far_ too long to find her, her kidnapper obviously had no desire to actually harm her, and this was an open area so escape wouldn’t be likely. Smart on her attacker’s behalf. He was currently hiding behind a tree and had been kind enough to inform her that he was only after Stephen. At this point she didn’t give a damn because her fingers were numb and it was late- any idiot knows not to go through Central Park at night so she had little desire to sit around waiting for Stephen to save her. Whenever he did show up, and she had full faith he would, she was going to get him to teach her how to get rid of magic users because this was _wildly_ inconvenient.

The last thing she expects is to fall through the bench she was sitting on, letting out a sharp yell as she does so. When she lands she has no idea where she is, just that she’s obviously not in New York anymore and Stephen is smiling over her. “Hello, Christine, this is Tony,” he says, gesturing to Tony Stark.

“I have eyes and I know who he is. What the hell just happened?” she snaps. Off to the side a pudgy Asian man laughs, shaking his head.

“A soul mate who is clearly unafraid to call you on your attitude, I already like her,” he says. “I’m Wong by the way, and you’re currently in Nepal.”

She sits up and looks around wildly for some kind of evidence that would disprove this but finds none. Even the sky looked different here, like it was mid morning instead of late at night. “Okay _what_ is going on?” she asks.

Stephen explains with regular interjections from Tony that gave actual context to Stephen’s words about who Mordo was and what his goal was. When she asked what the hell she had to do with anything- it wasn’t like she used magic let alone messed with the natural order of things- Stephen explained that soul mates were an easy way to get to someone. She ends up rolling her eyes because she could have guessed that already but she leaves it.

“Well great, you saved me, can I go home now? I have to work in a few hours and I’d like to get some sleep before then,” she says in an irritated tone.

“Uh, no, you can’t go back home you’re in danger. Call in,” Stephen tells her and she balks at him.

“ _No_ ,” she says, appalled that he’d even suggest such a thing. “You never would have told me to do that a year ago,” she adds.

“A year ago a psycho sorcerer wasn’t trying to kill you,” Stephen says, rolling his eyes.

“If he was trying to kill her she’d be dead,” Tony interrupts and Christine nods, thankful that someone here seemed to get it. “But Stephen’s right, we _did_ kind of fuck up his plans and this guy is pretty tenacious. My guess is that he doesn’t want to hurt you, but will if he’s pressed. I’d say at this point he’s pressed.”

She shakes her head because this was absolutely out of the question. “I am not giving up my work because you got yourself into some mess! This isn’t my problem,” she tells him.

Stephen sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I _know_ that Christine and if I thought you could just return home with no problems I would have agreed but you _can’t_. Not unless you want this or worse to happen. You’re lucky he caught you at home instead of the hospital anyways,” he points out.

Christine frowns, “how do you know he didn’t grab me from the hospital?” she asks.

“New reports,” Tony says. “That would have drawn attention and it’s more than likely he’s been waiting for a good opportunity to grab you anyways. Home means no witnesses since you live on your own.”

“I suppose you should be grateful to your being a workaholic that he didn’t find you sooner,” Stephen says. “But for now you have little choice but to stay here.”

“The hell I do,” she says and stands up, fully prepared to find the nearest airport and fly back home immediately. Stephen could sort this mess out without her- she had things to do and she wasn’t about to give up her life for Stephen. She’s already given him enough in the past.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tony says, stepping in front of her with his hands up in surrender. “Hold on a minute, lets not be hasty. You understandably want to get back to your life, but Stephen has a nutty sorcerer to catch. It’d be nice if we knew what happened exactly before you got here,” he says.

“I don’t even know what happened, it was all a blur,” she says dismissively.

Tony shrugs, “no problem, what I had in mind involves something that won’t require more than basic recall- BARF does most of the work for you,” he says.

Christine isn’t looking at Stephen but she knows they’re making the same face. “Barf?” Stephen asks, taking the bait.

“Yeah, Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing- BARF for short,” Tony explains. “Its basically a pair of glasses that temporarily highjacks the hippocampus to access traumatic memories and projects them onto the room around you. Its designed as a way to work through traumatic memories, but it works just as well to figure out what exactly happened when Christine got kidnapped,” he says.

Stephen looks absolutely dumbfounded. “I… you… found a way to access memories in a non invasive way?” He shakes his head in a combination of wonder and shock, “every time I find out something new about what you’ve done I am amazed- the sheer amount of medical knowledge you’d have to have to pull that off and I know you have no training. That’s… remarkable. I think I’m in love with you,” he says.

“Thanks,” Tony says without much thought and Christine is certain she hears the sound of poor Stephen’s heart breaking but Tony remains oblivious, probably under the impression that Stephen’s comment was a joke. “So uh, someone needs to make me a portal thing because the glasses aren’t with me,” he says to Stephen in particular but Stephen is too busy looking like a kicked puppy.

“He was serious,” Christine tells Tony, who frowns. “About loving you,” she adds given his obvious confusion. She regrets saying anything when Tony gets an awkward look on his face and he pats Stephen’s shoulder.

“That’s nice,” he says, probably making the whole thing worse. Christine exchanges a look with Wong, who rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

“Stephen, take Tony to get the glasses,” he says and Christine winces, unsure if that was a good call. Stephen never really has taken rejection well and his silence thus far was a blessing.

Instead of saying or doing something stupid though he just sighs, “alright, with me then,” he says and he makes one of those spark portals Christine has now seen three times. Once when Stephen ran back to that closet, once when that Mordo guy showed up in her apartment, and once again when he dragged her off to Central Park. Stephen and Tony step through and Christine turns to Wong.

“I don’t think that was a good idea,” she says.

“It was a fine idea,” he counters. “Just because Tony doesn’t feel the same way about Stephen as Stephen feels about him doesn’t mean they should be kept apart. All the more reason to throw them together if you ask me. Stephen has been growing on him anyways. Like mold.”

Christine lets out an almost hysterical laugh and shakes her head. “God I hope this doesn’t go badly.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is almost done at least for you guys lol. I finished editing it today to the end.

Tony’s lab was more of a mess than he remembered it and Stephen takes the opportunity to poke around at things a little while Tony found what he was looking for. “That wasn’t… that love thing wasn’t real, right?” he asks, shuffling some papers around to try and find those damn glasses. Dummy probably knocked them over or something and didn’t pick them up because the bot had more bolts than brains.

Stephen lets out a loud sigh, “of course not, why would I ever say something so fucking stupid?” he says more to himself than Tony.

Yeah, so Christine wasn’t wrong even though Tony hoped she was. “Uh. Okay you know what, I hate pussyfooting so I’m not even going to bother. I don’t love you, I don’t even know if I like you to be honest. You’re kind of a dickhead, and the first thing you did when we met was lie to me and the second thing you did was punch my soul out of my body. You definitely know how to make an impression but it wasn’t a very good one. I hate magic, it always seemed to screw me up somehow and you accidently proved that true. Again. But… well, the other day I _did_ tell Rhodey off for saying you were bad for me somehow because despite all that it is _abundantly_ clear to everyone who’s paying attention that you have far more respect for me than most other people around you. I can appreciate that. So I don’t love you, but that doesn’t mean I never will. And that’s Dummy, he can make toast,” Tony says as Stephen flicks Dummy’s claw.

Dummy comes to life, spinning to face him and Stephen lets out an embarrassingly high shriek as he jumps back. Tony laughs and shakes his head, turning back to his task while Dummy tries to check Stephen out, not that he was allowing it. “Call your weird robot off!” Stephen yells at him, trying and failing to escape the corner Dummy now had him backed into.

Tony gives him a lazy look over his shoulder, “I got felt up by your weird cape, you can get checked out by my awesome robot,” he says, grinning. Stephen just presses himself further into the corner and mumbles a bunch of stuff under his breath. Tony is sure that its all swear words and other insults but he doesn’t mind much. He finally locates the glasses and turns back around, “Dummy, leave Stephen alone,” he tells the bot. Dummy looks dejected but he wheels away and over to Tony, running over like seven things in the process. Normally Tony would be annoyed but he can’t muster enough anger to be mad at the bot when he hasn’t seen Dummy in some time now. “Yeah, yeah, Stephen sucks as a person because he thinks you’re creepy I get it,” he says, patting Dummy’s claw and watching as Stephen primly picks his way out of the corner he was backed into.

“My cape is superior to that… _thing_ ,” he says, waving a hand at Dummy.

He rolls his eyes, “only in your _dreams_ would your stupid piece of cloth be even _remotely_ as cool as my bot. Can your cape make toast? Probably not,” Tony says, nose in the air.

“My cape has saved my life on multiple occasions, I bet your bot can’t do that,” Stephen says back, nose also in the air.

“ _Please_ , child’s play to Dummy. I accidentally light myself on fire a lot and this trusty little guy always puts me out,” he says proudly. He put Tony out too much honestly but he wasn’t going to tell Stephen that.

Stephen squints at him, “I’m sorry, you _accidentally_ light yourself on fire and this is a _frequent_ occurrence?” he asks. He looks off at the floor with a confused and slightly dejected facial expression, “what the hell did I fall in love with?”

“Someone with better taste in odd companions than you,” Tony tells him. “Now do your portal thing so we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

*

Christine watches as Stephen looks around in wonder and Wong mirrors the action. She had to admit she was impressed herself and not just with the technology. Stephen… before all this he wouldn’t have reacted well to Tony’s rebuff of his love confession- she’d know given that she’s found herself in a similar situation even if Stephen did eventually come back. But it took him three months. She wasn’t sure if this was some kind of character development or some kind of testament to Stephen’s love for Tony but either way it was nice to see him more… relaxed.

“Tony you have out _done_ yourself,” Stephen says, shaking his head.

Tony shrugs, “it took a bunch of fucking around and Christine, you’re going to be nursing a nasty electromagnetic headache after this- but I eventually got it to work.”

“Without any real invasion of the brain,” Stephen notes, staring at the walls around them- walls that now looked like Christine’s apartment- in awe. Tony doesn’t look impressed but he only knew about the technological aspect of this invention, it was Stephen and Christine that were the medical experts. This wasn’t something simple- memories were incredibly complex and for Tony to have managed to make a device like that… it was more than a little impressive, especially since Christine felt nothing. At least not yet if Tony’s predictions of a headache were true, but that was an incredibly small price to pay for something so intricate and noninvasive.

“Yeah, its not really that impressive. Its mostly a really expensive way for me to say goodbye to my parents to be honest,” he says and Stephen shakes his head, looking shocked.

“Do you have _any_ idea how useful this could be for mental health alone? And that’s without considering police applications for this, among other uses. This is no small feat- it’s a medical miracle,” Stephen tells Tony, admiration clear on his features. Wong and Christine share a look, apparently both knowing him well enough to know that Stephen doesn’t admire people often if ever.

“Whatever. Christine, play the memory,” Tony tells her and she frowns.

“Play the- how am I supposed to do that?” she asks and Tony sighs.

“Literally think about it, the glasses will fill in true details you don’t remember and from there we’ll figure out what happened,” Tony says. “The good news is that you know the layout of your apartment well, that’ll make the 360 reconstruction more accurate.”

Stephen raises an eyebrow, “360 reconstruction?” he asks and Christine rolls her eyes, thinking of the memory and jumping when it starts to play, staring with her looking at her computer. That was… trippy to say the least. She watches as she reaches out- something she didn’t distinctly remember herself doing- before the sparks start behind her and that Mordo guy steps through.

“Pause it,” Tony tells her, “Focus on this moment,” he clarifies when she gives him a confused look. She does as he says; focusing on that Mordo person, surprised then the scene freezes. “Can anyone see what’s in that portal? It probably won’t be perfect recall- Christine was obviously focusing on Mordo, not where he stepped through from but it would be useful to know where he is. Or was anyways.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” Christine says, stepping closer to the portal but all she saw were some weird books. Something about the scene must stick out to Stephen though because he raises an eyebrow.

“That’s a Sanctum library- Wong, have we gotten any word of an attack?” he asks, turning to the pudgy man.

He shakes his head, “but we wouldn’t have if Mordo was efficient in his purpose. And we know him to be quite efficient,” he says.

Tony nods, “good, we’re already getting information. Christine, play it again. Focus on what happens next,” he tells her. She does as Tony says and the scene continues to play like she remembered. Mordo steps towards her, tells her he has no desire to hurt her but gives her a typical ‘cooperate or else’ speech. It seemed odd to her then and now that a villain, or she at least thought he was a villain, would be this benevolent.

Stephen frowns when Christine only pauses for a moment to ask what exactly Mordo’s goal was before going with him. “You just _went_?” Stephen asks, looking shocked for some stupid reason. She rolls her eyes but its Tony that explains.

“The guy just came out of a shower of sparks _into_ her apartment, you really think she was going to fight back? Don’t be stupid, she knew she was outclassed,” Tony says.

“I can speak for _myself_ , thank you. But he’s right- plus his goal was to get to you and I know two things about you that will never change. One, you’re probably the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. And two- you don’t take kindly to people trying to take your things. Between those two things I knew you’d show up, it’s was just a matter of when.” Granted she didn’t expect her rescue to go so smoothly, nor did she expect a complete lack of retaliation on her attacker’s end but here they were.

“You’re not a thing, Christine,” Tony says but she snorts.

“Oh you don’t know Stephen well then- he doesn’t play well with people and he tends to think of them as things that convenience or inconvenience his life. So no, objectively I’m not a thing- but Stephen’s opinions are subjective so,” she says, shrugging. Tony exchanges an awkward look with Wong as Stephen’s eyebrows draw together.

“I never thought of you as a thing,” he says and she gives him a _look_. “Not consciously anyways,” he mumbles under his breath. It was a testament to how much he’s grown as a person that he actually admitted that to himself let alone out loud. “I really am sorry- for all of it, but especially how things ended between us. You didn’t deserve any of what I did, how I treated you. You were only trying to help,” he says, head bowed in actual shame, not some poorly simulated version of it like usual. Most of the time Stephen only played along until he got what he wanted but this wasn’t that. She knew him well enough to know.

“I like to think he’s moved on his arrogant past,” Wong adds. “Even if he still makes me want to rip my hair out.”

“You’re bald,” Tony says.

“Exactly. You’ve been a victim of his attempts at teaching, you know my pain,” he says, giving Tony a meaningful look.

Christine makes a face, “who let him teach, that’s an _awful_ idea. He’s terrible at it,” she says.

Stephen makes an irritated noise, “yeah, everybody hates me, we get it. Can we move on now?” he asks, acting more like his previous self than she’s seen from him thus far. He never has been good at taking criticism.

Tony steps closer and places his hand on Stephen’s forearm though, seemingly startling him with the touch. “We don’t hate you, we just think teaching isn’t your forte. It isn’t mine either- I have no patience and teaching people things I consider basic is like dragging nails across a chalkboard. When I was a PhD student I got banned from being a TA because I made an entire class cry. Not my proudest moment,” Tony admits, looking properly ashamed of his fact.

“You made an entire _room_ full of students cry?” he asks and Tony sighs.

“Eighteen grown men sobbing, yeah. So you’re not the only one who sucks at trying to teach people new things,” he says.

“You seemed to do just fine with the glasses,” Christine points out. Stephen gives her a dirty look but she ignores it, it wasn’t her fault Tony clearly grew out of his inability to teach.

“That’s different. You don’t actually know what you’re doing, a bunch of guys in a masters program who didn’t know what I was talking about when I introduced the subject for the day? Totally unacceptable given that it was knowledge they should have had already. And I had way less patience as a teen.” Christine frowns for a moment before she remembered that Tony went through school far faster than the average kid, even if he was likely in his late teens when this happened.

“Once I accidentally made a resident quit and move to a new country,” Stephen says and Christine sighs.

“Yeah, I remember that. Exhibit A in all the number of reasons why no one should allow you to have students.” The number of students they ended up with at the hospital that wanted to work with Stephen because he was the top in his field was fairly generous, but the number who stuck with him was zero. Christine tended to take on whoever was still brave enough to stick with medicine once Stephen was through with them. She resented being the second choice- she and Stephen came up with several new ways of doing surgery _together_ but it didn’t surprise her that he got all the credit. It helped that he was louder about their accomplishments than she was but she just didn’t feel the need to brag unnecessarily while that was about three quarters of Stephen’s personality.

*

Tony finds Stephen hiding on the roof, which wasn’t much of an effective hiding place considering he happened to know that Stephen liked high places for some reason. “You look… dejected,” Tony notes as he walks up. Stephen doesn’t look impressed to be found but the guy was a fucking sorcerer, of he really wanted to not be found than he should have thought up a better hiding place. Or hid himself with magic.

He sighs, “today was not my day,” he says.

Yeah, Tony figured with all the unrequited love and soul mates being attacked and all that but he guesses it was the rejection that stung more than Christine. She was safe- at least for now though she has spent a good amount of time complaining to go home- but Tony’s lack of love wasn’t really going anywhere.

“I’m not quick to trust,” Tony says, “and we didn’t start off on the right foot.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Stephen says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“You punched my soul out of my body, that is easily the shittiest way I’ve ever met a person minus maybe Steve, who decided I was a useless hero basically on sight. In his defense he wasn’t wrong exactly but still.” Even he and Hope started out on a better note and they hated each other for years thanks to both of them hearing the other’s father talk shit about their families for years. Then they actually sat down and talked and realized that Hank and Howard were basically the same person and called a truce. That had been when Tony told Rhodey he knew who Hope was and the rest fell into place well enough.

“You’re not a useless hero,” Stephen says but the words are empty and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Stephen- you punched my soul out of my body, lied to me about who you were, said some really nasty stuff true or not, and then I got attacked. Those aren’t exactly ideal circumstances without considering my past with people let alone after,” he points out.

Stephen gives him an irritated look, “is there a point to that lovely speech?” he asks.

“Yeah, drop the attitude and stop acting like a kicked puppy. No one wants to be in your situation, I’ve been there, but realistically you have a lot more reason to love me than I have to love you. That’s not an insult so don’t make that face- I’m just saying overall I left a far more positive impression than you did. That isn’t even necessarily a bad thing honestly. I’ve already seen you at your worst, sounds odd but it’s a lot easier to trust someone when you know what their bad side looks like.” He remembered that conversation with Steve not long ago, about how he didn’t trust anyone with a bad side and Steve had responded that maybe he hadn’t seen it yet. He wasn’t wrong but Tony couldn’t have anticipated nearly being killed by him a little over a year after that. Stephen was at least up front about his character flaws even if Tony by no means appreciated having his _soul_ punched. Better than having his rib cage crushed if he was honest.

“That does sound rather… contradictory,” Stephen says and Tony shrugs.

“When people are at their worst they say and do stuff they normally wouldn’t. Best to see that first before you get attached only to find out you’re friends with a fucking psycho who all but literally rips your heart out over a bigger bottom line,” he points out. Stephen frowns, obviously not getting the reference and Tony sighs. “Obadiah. If you want I can give you a whole list of people who presented themselves as one thing and ended up another. Hell, Captain fucking _America_ , the goody- goody who never does anything wrong rode my ass about keeping secrets when he didn’t even have the balls to tell me his war buddy _murdered_ my parents. Never would have taken him for a hypocrite,” he mumbles.

“Really? I find the ones who think they’re fantastically good people to be the ones most likely to stab you in the back and claim it was your fault to begin with. They don’t typically like breaking their ‘do gooder’ personas, and they like admitting to their mistakes less. Matter of perspective, I suppose. Sorry about punching you soul. That’s not what I did but sorry,” he says and Tony snorts and laughs.

“You suck at apologies, but I’ll take it. And you’re not wrong about the do gooders, I have the same philosophy. People who think they’re so good they’re above making mistakes pretty much elevate themselves to a god-like status and humans suck as a species. We’ll always screw something up. Guess I learned lesson again the hard way,” he mumbles.

“You’re too trusting,” Stephen says, “which is why it’s a real kick to the ego that you seem to have no trust in me. I can’t possibly be worse that anyone else in your life,” he mumbles, glaring off the edge of the building and going back to looking like a kicked puppy.

Tony sighs, “yeah, but you happened to come into my life at probably the worst moment. I mean for the second time in a decade everything I thought was true isn’t, my entire life as I knew it is completely fucked, and it turns out a bitchy sorcerer with a cape that likes to play favorites is my soul mate. Oh, and some other magical jackass is trying to kill me and every other magical person on the planet. The odds weren’t really stacked in your favor. You’re doing pretty well regardless.”

Stephen gives him an annoyed look, “don’t placate me,” he says.

“Why not, that’s exactly what you want me to do. Besides, you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t believe it on some level. I chewed Rhodey’s ass the other day because I didn’t agree with his perception of you and trust me that is _not_ something that happens often. Ever, actually,” Tony says, frowning. It never occurred to him that he’s never actually spoke out against Rhodey’s judgment of character because he was almost always right. And he was much better at judging character than Tony, who was emotionally incompetent at best. The closest he’s come is defending Obadiah and even then the defenses were weak and limited to Rhodey not knowing him like Tony did. He never really did mean anything he said to Rhodey in defense of Obadiah but he didn’t think the man would try to kill him either. He had far more faith that Stephen wasn’t going to kill him than most other people in his life at the moment so really Stephen was winning.

“Yes, your Rhodey doesn’t seem to like me much. He’s concerned I’m trying to give you solutions to your life problems that don’t exist,” Stephen says.

Yeah, so Tony knew. “So I’ve been told. But I genuinely don’t think you would have agreed with Wong if you didn’t have faith in his opinion. Its not like you’re shy about disagreeing with people,” he points out.

Stephen laughs, “no I’m not, especially if I think I’m right. And you aren’t the type to just accept a solution without examining it first- especially if its magical,” he points out.

Probably because magic liked to kick his ass and almost kill him, the people he cares about, or the entire planet a little too often for his liking. “Magic sucks. But for the record despite getting off to a pretty shitty start I think Rhodey’s wrong about you. It helps that you’re not at all shy in telling people what you really think- there’s a pretty obvious difference in the way you treat me and the way you treat everyone else but Wong. And Christine.” Mostly that Tony got much better treatment and a lot less attitude.

“That’s because you aren’t a fucking idiot,” he mumbles and Tony laughs.

“Depends on who you ask. So stop moping around, it doesn’t suit you,” he says.

Stephen snorts, “oh most people would tell you otherwise. But I’m not moping about you- presently- its Mordo that’s got me confused. Why wait so long to pick up Christine? Why no retaliation after her hasty rescue? What exactly is he planning?” he asks, frowning.

Tony shrugs, “the first two are easy. One- Christine is rarely home given that she’s obviously a workaholic. He clearly didn’t want to pick her up in the hospital so he waited for a good opportunity to get her elsewhere. As for why he waited so long- probably because of the time of day he chose. Dusk in New York is the very early morning here- waking you up at three in the morning would put you at your absolute worst performance in problem solving and likely magical skill. It just happened to work out in your favor that you were awake already. The lack of retaliation is probably because he’s got a backup plan,” Tony says.

“A back up plan,” Stephen murmurs, “like what? Because Christine won’t stop yelling about going home until I let her go and that would be stupid given that she’s in danger.”

“He could have been testing your reaction time,” Tony says, the thought occurring to him late. He and the Avengers have done it a few times with reoccurring hard to catch villains. They drew up plans but they needed to know how long they had before they’d get a response so Tony usually ran a distraction to figure out how their target responded. This Mordo guy seemed more than smart enough to have thought something similar through.

“Testing my reaction time… to what end?” Stephen asks, obviously considering the option. “And why use Christine to do it?”

This occupies Tony’s mind for a moment before he smiles. “Because he never wanted Christine to be a target. Think about it- why would he chose _me_ to go after first when I’m such a high profile target and one that’s used to being in a fight? Christine by all accounts is the easier target- she’s easier to find, easier to actually access, and has the least amount of fighting experience. But she’s never messed with the natural order of things. Actually she’s a doctor- she saves lives on a regular basis and if this Mordo guy functions the way I think he does he probably has a lot or respect for the profession. Me? Lot less respect there, and both Rhodey and Hope are well known for toying with things they shouldn’t. All of the Avengers are in their own ways; though Hope has done more to unbalance things than Rhodey thanks to her work on the Pym Particle. Point is he didn’t want Christine to be a target and only used her to test what you would do. My guess is that you passed whatever test he had.”

Stephen considers this for a long few moments. “He wanted to see how I preformed at my worst with someone I considered precious on the line,” he says slowly. “I really dislike dealing with smart people.”

“They are the best at villainy,” Tony agrees.

“How do you think Christine will react to all of this?” he asks after a few moments.

“Probably with an insistence to go home since she was never a real target,” Tony says and Stephen laughs.

“Probably,” he agrees.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that this sucker has a pretty open end and I'd apologize, but I actually kind of like being a Disney villain lol.

“The Hong Kong Sanctum was wiped out,” Wong reports. Stephen looks up from his breakfast and Tony looks up from the book Rhodey was trying to read over his shoulder with no success. Tony could barely read the Sanskrit, Rhodey was sure to be at a loss. He’s pretty sure Rhodey only knew Spanish and French aside from English.

Stephen sighs, “well, they were weak after Dormammu. It was a good strategical choice,” he says.

Christine looks at Tony, “Dormam-what?” she asks. Hope and Rhodey look just as interested in his response.

“Interdimensional asshole,” he explains. “Almost ate the earth until Stephen stuck him in a time loop where he got killed a billion and one times until said interdimensional douche got bored and gave Stephen a second to speak.” Christine’s eyes bug out and Rhodey and Hope have similar reactions. “Yeah, it was pretty hard core,” he says in Stephen’s defense because it was. Sure Tony has nearly sacrificed himself on a few occasions but he didn’t think he was _that_ brave.

“Its hard to believe one man can cause all this damage,” Wong says, giving the table a look like he was at a loss.

“Trust me, take it from someone who knows- when you have the resources one person can do a _lot_ of damage. Out of curiosity how long was he there afterwards though?” he asks.

Wong frowns at him, “what do you mean?” he asks.

“Well he wouldn’t just kill a crap ton of sorcerers and then go kidnap someone, he’d need time to recharge if he expected an attack from Stephen. And he probably did,” Rhodey points out.

Tony nods, “what he said.” Stephen and Wong exchange a look and Wong nods.

“I’ll go investigate,” he says and with that he’s off.

“You’re quite good at this,” Stephen notes. “How much experience do you have with strategy anyways?”

“Not much,” Rhodey answers for him. “Steve and Natasha did most of the planning, but Tony processes things at near computer fast speeds- it makes him an asset in the field not that any of the Avengers ever capitalized on that,” Rhodey says in a bitter, annoyed tone. Tony smiles, shaking his head at his friend. Rhodey had always been annoyed at the way Tony was cast to the side as a distraction most of the time thanks to his brightly colored and highly recognizable suit. When Rhodey was in charge, which was rare, he always kept Tony as his right hand man and Natasha was the distraction. Or Clint, but Tony suspected Rhodey made Clint the distraction because he didn’t like him. Natasha got the position because she was the most likely to get out alive thanks to her skill set.

Stephen hums and nods, “so I’m gathering. He’s quite good at figuring out motivation as well,” he says.

“He figured out Loki too,” Rhodey adds proudly.

“And Ultron. You are actually pretty good at this stuff,” Hope says, surprised. Rhodey gives her a _look_ but she doesn’t notice due to her making connections to Tony’s ability to work through information.

“Yes, lovely, I know he’s talented at figuring things out. If you don’t mind I’d like to keep you updated so I can get your opinions on things- so far you’ve figured out more than Wong and I,” Stephen says and Tony raises his eyebrows in surprise.

“I uh… yeah, sure,” he says, shocked that he was actually being included in this.

*

Christine finds him in the library and to Tony’s delight the cape was following her, flapping its material at her. “What is this annoying cloth?” she asks, smacking the cape away. It seems to give up at least, flying over to Tony and settling on his shoulders. “You look like a bad rendition of Dracula in that,” she tells him.

Tony snorts, “you should see it on Stephen, it’s ten times more hilarious. This is his by the way- something about a magical relic choosing its user; I don’t know the details but its sentient and apparently fickle. Its been feeling me up since I got here and I guess since you’re also his soul mate it felt the need to crawl up your ass too,” he says, batting the cape away from trying to move some hair off his forehead. The cape smacks him back and he flicks it, earning a near jab to the eye from the corner of the collar. “Could you _not_?” Tony asks the cape, glaring at it.

“Stephen told me about it but I honestly thought he was exaggerating. You know, you do it with your technology, applying personalities to your stuff. I thought he was lonely and got overly attached to the cape, not that it was actually sentient,” she says, gesturing to it.

“Okay first of all my bots _do_ have personalities thank you, and they’re very distinctive. But no, sadly the cape is sentient and it _insists_ on bugging everyone around it.” The cape flutters, obviously not pleased with Tony’s assessment of its actions but Tony didn’t care, it was annoying and he felt the need to tell it that.

“Whatever. Do you think you can talk Stephen into getting me home? Those portal things are a lot faster than planes and I have things to do,” she says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “what makes you think he’ll listen to me over you?” he asks. They probably had the same amount of respect from Stephen and considering Tony’s recent blow to his ego he’d probably be more willing to listen to Christine.

“Oh please, seduce him a little and he’ll do almost anything you want. Please,” she adds, looking a little desperate and Tony laughs.

“I’ll see what I can do, but I’m pretty sure seducing him won’t work. You’re also a neurosurgeon, right?” he asks.

She nods, “yes and I have better things to do than be harassed by magical capes,” she says, gesturing to the cape currently around Tony’s shoulders.

“So do I but the last time I tried to leave the stupid cape followed me and then I almost died,” he says and Christine raises an eyebrow in surprise. He explains what happened and she shakes her head as the story gets more and more wild.

“A _cape_ saved your life. What the hell has Stephen gotten himself into?” she asks more to herself than Tony.

“Nothing I can’t handle, I assure you,” Stephen tells her, walking in at just the right moment. Christine gives Tony a _look_ and he sighs.

“Stephen you can’t keep Christine here, she’s not a prisoner,” he says. Christine kicks him under the table and he glares at her. “She has work to do,” he adds.

For a moment Stephen looks like he’s going to respond but he pauses, considering things for a long moment before smiling victoriously. “Alright,” he says and Christine lets out a sigh of relief.

Tony squints at him, knowing this was _way_ to easy. “What’s the catch?” he asks.

At this Stephen looks extra pleased with himself, “she goes back to work, and you let her run some tests on your injuries,” he says.

“Dirty bastard,” Tony snarls at him but Stephen doesn’t lose his clear pride in himself.

“Told you I’d get you to a hospital. I mean I managed to negotiate earth’s safety out of an interdimensional being, negotiation with you is simple in comparison,” he says proudly.

“What makes you think I’ll agree?” he asks, earning another kick from Christine.

“Because you care more about other people than yourself and you don’t want Christine to suffer here,” he says and Tony swears and starts cursing Stephen out under his breath. “Checkmate for me,” he says, arrogant smile on his face. Tony glares at Christine, hoping she appreciated this.

*

Christine looks over Tony’s charts and sighs, which he fucking resents. “How do you even _function_?” she asks.

“Very well, thank you. Now can I go?” he asks. He moves to get up but Stephen gives him a _look_ and he sits back down.

“You can go- straight to bed. You have cracked ribs that haven’t healed right, a torn rotator cuff, and a heart murmur that I’m certain is due to some abnormalities in your heart valves. You need to slow down,” she tells him and Tony rolls his eyes. Christine turns to Stephen but he waves her off.

“I already know the treatments,” he says, “just make sure his heart isn’t about to kill him.” Tony sits back on the stupid hospital bed he was currently occupying and glares at Stephen as Christine leaves the room. “What? I’m just trying to make sure you’re not on the verge of death,” he says.

Tony sighs because he knew that but he _loathed_ hospitals. “I am _not_ doing bed rest- I can’t stay still that long,” he says mostly because it’s true but a little because he’s stubborn too.

Stephen sighs and stands, walking over to Tony. “I know that you’re used to always being in motion but Christine is right. You need to allow your body time to heal,” he says softly, gently moving some of Tony’s hair out of his face.

He snorts, “why does something tell me that you didn’t do that with your hands?” he asks, earning a rueful laugh from Stephen.

“I didn’t, and I should have. But I’m stubborn like you and wanted everything to go my way right away. I did eventually give myself time to heal and it worked in my favor, and you need to do the same,” Stephen says softly. He runs his fingers down the side of Tony’s face and Tony leans into the touch, sighing.

“I seriously don’t think I can keep still for any length of time,” he says.

“I know,” Stephen says gently. “But I’ll be around to keep you company.”

Tony lets out a small laugh, “you have to chase down Mordo,” he says.

“And I’ll need your help with that. I’m serious Tony; you’re much better at figuring out what’s going on in Mordo’s head than Wong and I. We never would have gotten this far without you,” he says. Tony leans forward, pressing his head to Stephen’s chest and allowing him to run his fingers through his hair. It felt nice to be touched, to accept some measure of comfort after so long without it. Even before their breakup Pepper had grown distant, something he didn’t blame her for, but it meant that its been too long since he’s had any kind of positive touch aside from the occasional pats from Rhodey. “I’ve got you,” Stephen croons, “its okay.”

He lets himself be comforted, sinking into Stephen’s touch a little as he continues to run his fingers through his hair. “Thanks,” Tony murmurs, face still pressed to Stephen’s chest.

“You’re welcome,” Stephen murmurs. “It seems like you needed it.”

So he did not that he’d ever admit that out loud. Instead he pulls back a little and Stephen lets him go, smiling at him as he does. Tony smiles back, somewhat irritated to find that he had to bend his head back ridiculously far to actually meet Stephen’s gaze thanks to his height. Damn genetics- both his parents were taller than he was so he was annoyed that he got the short stick on that end- literally. He reaches out and settles his right hand on Stephen’s hip, leaving his left by his side because whatever Christine did to it left it sore. “You know you’re kind of gorgeous, right?” he asks. Tall, lean, high cheekbones and just a little grey in his hair all worked very well on him.

Stephen grins like he knows it too, “I’ve been told. But it’s always nice to hear,” he says.

“Also you have an _insanely_ attractive voice,” Tony adds. Voices weren’t really things he paid attention to but Stephen’s was a beautifully soft, deep voice that Tony could probably listen to all day even if he was more than likely to ignore the actual words.

“My _voice_?” Stephen asks, laughing. “That’s new.”

“Is not, it’s just that no one has ever said it to you before. They’ve thought it, trust me,” Tony says. No one could hear Stephen’s voice and _not_ find it attractive.

“Mhm, sure,” Stephen says, laughing when Tony rolls his eyes.

“I’m going to ask Christine about it when she comes back,” Tony tells him. It was just a fact- his voice is attractive.

“She’s going to tell you you’re nuts,” Stephen says, “but be my guest.”

“Just shut up and take the compliment, asshole,” Tony says, poking Stephen in the side and earning a sharp laugh out of him as he jumps. “So you’re ticklish?” he asks.

“If you tickle me I _will_ kick you and it’ll be mostly involuntary,” he warns.

Tony snorts, “you’d probably feel pretty shitty for kicking me, I’m injured,” he reminds Stephen, who sighs.

“Yes well, you’ve been warned. What happens now is on you. In all seriousness though you _are_ going to need to relax, you won’t be able to lift anything with your left hand for some time and your ribs need a break. And you know if I tell Rhodey he’ll probably make it his mission to keep you in bed,” he says.

He wrinkles his nose, “could you not?” he asks. Rhodey was too overprotective for his own good sometimes and Tony could do without.

“If I think its necessary I’ll do what I need to,” Stephen says evasively. “But I’ll let your bed rest to the talking in the meantime.”

Tony sighs and presses his face back into Stephen’s chest. “You’re impossible,” he mumbles.

“Not any more impossible than you,” Stephen replies and Tony guessed he had a point there.

They stay like that for a few moments before Tony pulls back again. “Does your back hurt from hunching over to hug me? Because you’re like, part giraffe or something,” he says. Stephen snorts and shakes his head.

“Doesn’t matter either way, I wouldn’t care,” he says. Tony ducks his head a little, surprised when Stephen tilts his head up again, “you’re worth a little back pain anyways,” he says softly, leaning down and kissing Tony. He leans into the kiss because its been awhile since he’s had this too, and he wants to relish in it a little.

“Really Stephen?” Christine says, walking in at an inopportune moment.

“I don’t see why you’re surprised, this isn’t unusual,” a different woman says, giving Stephen an annoyed enough look that Tony knows immediately that they have a history.

“Uh, this is the head of the cardiology department. She’s quite good,” he says awkwardly.

“Funny you say that given that the last time we talked you called me a quack and asked if I got my medical license out of a box of Cheerios,” she says in a clipped tone.

“Out of curiosity does anyone here actually like Stephen?” Tony asks, earning a _look_ from Stephen but Christine looks amused at Tony sticking him in the hot seat.

The cardiology doctor laughs, “we like Stephen about as much as we like the idea of sitting on a cactus or contracting the black plague. If it were legal to fire someone out of sheer dislike he would have been fired several times over. But even I have to admit he is a fantastic doctor with an even better track record,” she mumbles, shooting Stephen an annoyed glare like this particular fact made it harder to dislike him. Which may be true for all Tony knew but her response makes him laugh nonetheless.

“I like you,” he says and the doctor snorts.

“I don’t care what you think, I’m here because working on your heart has been a dream of mine since you got fucked up in Afghanistan and made yourself interesting to me,” she says and Tony’s eyebrows shoot up. Well, at least she was blunt.

*

Stephen sighs as Tony starts wiggling around basically ten seconds after lying in his bed. “For gods sakes, stay still. All this moving around caused your ribs to heal badly, and thanks to your inability to let yourself heal is the reason why the muscles around your ribs are bruised. So sit still, you only need to stay there for a few days,” he says. As it was he was lucky his badly healed ribs didn’t cause complications given how much he got smacked around, and he was even luckier that that heart murmur of his turned out to be benign. Luck honestly didn’t even begin to cover how unlikely it was that Tony’s injuries weren’t that serious. Even a torn rotator cuff wasn’t that bad even if he wouldn’t be able to use that arm for much until it was healed. It may take time to heal right, especially since Tony aggravated it so much, but it would be fine eventually. The fact that he didn’t manage to get an infection was a miracle in itself; Stephen was flat amazed with Tony’s good luck. The man was surprisingly hard to kill or otherwise maim.

“You _know_ I don’t do well in bed,” Tony says and Stephen grins.

“Well, I’ve heard better things about your skills in bed than _that_ ,” he says and Tony snorts, rolling his eyes at him.

“You know what I meant,” he says.

So he did, but he couldn’t resist the joke. “I thought you could use the time to read those books Wong gave you on prophets and meditate. Its something to do technically, and its low energy so you’ll occupy yourself without risking further injury. You’re lucky you aren’t more injured to begin with,” he says. Of all the things that could go wrong, that were probably still wrong given the tests Tony still had to undergo thanks to his probable heart issues even if there were none related to the murmur.

“Can’t I like… move?” Tony asks and Stephen sighs.

“No Tony you can’t, not until the bruising is healed so lay down and work on those books. I have to go teach students I’d rather avoid for the rest of my life, but I’ll be back. You can tell me what you learned in the meantime and I know what those books are about too, so don’t try and cheat,” he says. He read them all as a precaution just so he could tell if Tony decided to take his time unsupervised to go messing around.

“I’ve been functioning fine with the bruised ribs, I’ll live,” Tony says and he goes to get up but Stephen pushes him back onto his bed.

“I _will_ use a body binding spell on you and it will not be pleasant. Wong did it to me once and I was stuck like that for _hours_ bored out of my skull before the damn thing wore off. So stay here and heal. I don’t care how used to functioning you are while in huge amounts of pain, I am not going to allow it. Stay,” he tells Tony, pulling his hand away at Tony gives him a _vicious_ look over that body binding threat. “Good,” he says when Tony doesn’t move. He goes to leave then, pausing for a moment, “I know this will be hard, but you’ve managed to reinjure yourself enough often enough that you _still_ have lingering problems from an injury that took place almost two years ago. You just can’t continue like that, you’ll _die_ ,” he says softly. “And what good are you to anyone, yourself included, then? So please rest and give yourself time to relax. Your body is practically begging for it.”

He goes after that, leaving Tony with his books and hoping that he doesn’t try and do something strenuous while Stephen is gone.

*

God knows Tony wants to leave, he wants to run around and jump over fences, and climb a mountain or something but he does none of those things because of Stephen. Just the look on his face when he told Tony he couldn’t continue going on the way he was, the look on his face when he said Tony would die. He’d looked so… so… distraught and Tony didn’t know what to make of that. It wasn’t often that people cared about him let alone enough that they looked outright disturbed at the thought of him dying. And the attention Stephen paid to him was nice too, even if it was mostly for medical purposes.

Rhodey had been _right_ offended when he found out Stephen managed to bargain Tony into a hospital because he’s never been successful, but Stephen capitalized on a weakness of Tony’s and left a trusted friend to watch over Christine while he was elsewhere. The situation might have landed Tony in a hospital but it did work out for everyone else involved and so he dealt with it. In the meantime though he focuses on the stupid books Wong brought. Most of them said the same thing- focus on a reoccurring thought and wait for something to come to you but it sounded stupid to Tony, and not very scientific. The process though said it would distinguish a prophet from someone with good instincts to he closes his eyes and focuses.

 _Aliens_ he thinks to himself, focusing on the portal, Loki, Thor, London, all that contraband alien tech Peter found six months ago, and SHIELD. For a long time all he gets is that familiar panic he had when he thought of aliens, that squeezing in his heart that apparently wasn’t normal, and he’s about to give up when he feels a weird jolt that makes him gasp and his entire body flinches in response. The last thing he expects is a loud yell and when he looks over Stephen is in the air, cape fluttering around him with his hand on his heart. “Please give a man a warning next time you wake from a dead sleep!” Stephen tells him, shaking his head as he settles back to the ground.

Tony frowns, “I wasn’t sleeping, I was doing that- what time is it?” he asks, looking out the small window in his room. It was completely dark outside and his stomach was starting to growl and twist like he hadn’t eaten all day.

“Nearly nine o’clock, why?” Stephen asks. “And what do you mean you weren’t sleeping?”

“I… I was trying that meditation thing. I started around noon,” he says softly. What the fuck just happened?

Stephen raises an eyebrow. “Did you see anything?” he asks but Tony shakes his head.

“Nothing. I think I was about to but I got this weird… shock I guess. And then you were in the air floating around like a scared cat,” he says. Stephen flips him off and he laughs, wincing a little and looking down at his ribs in surprise. Sure he normally felt a twinge or two when he laughed but this was the first time it registered to him as actual _pain_ in some time.

“The medication is wearing off,” Stephen says. “This, by the way, is what you normally feel like. Not so nice now that you aren’t used to it, is it?” he asks.

Tony rolls his eyes at Stephen’s ‘told you so’ attitude but accepts that he’s right. “Those uh… those pain meds aren’t addictive are they? I didn’t think of it when-”

“I’m aware of your past as an addict, its been accounted for. And I’ve seen people become addicted to pain medications more than times that I’d care to count. I’d know the symptoms before you would and wean you off even if Christine didn’t give you something with a low addiction rate,” he says gently. Tony lets out tension in his body he didn’t realize he was holding and sighs, slumping in his spot. “You should probably lie back down, you gave quite a start. I’ve probably seen too many horror movies because for a moment I was _certain_ you were going to start flying around,” he says, shaking his head to himself.

Tony lets out a laugh and winces, “don’t make me laugh, it hurts,” he says, trying his best and failing to laugh softly. “One time Rhodey and I decided it was a good idea to watch Freddy Kruger on acid. Now we both hate horror movies with a passion because we tripped that we were actually _in_ the movie. For a couple of geniuses we were fucking stupid as teens,” he says. Phenomenally stupid, that’s what his mother had called them when she found them hours later hiding in her closet. In her defense she wasn’t wrong and bless her for managing to shoo them out with minimal issues.

Stephen gives him a look like he thinks Tony is the dumbest person he’s ever met but Tony accepts it. In that particular situation he was pretty spectacularly stupid so he earned that. “Sometimes when I find out new information about you I wonder why you’re my soul mate. Don’t look at me like that, Freddy Kruger on acid? Anyone would wonder how they ended up with you as a soul mate. Except your other soul mate who was stupid enough to go along with an idea I’m _sure_ was your idea.” He walks over and makes a shooing motion at Tony so he sighs and he moves over a little so Stephen could sit.

“I’m sure you’re perfect and make no stupid choices ever,” Tony tells him, nose in the air.

“I’ve made my fair share of dumb choices, watching horror movies on hallucinogenic drugs would never be on my radar of stupid things to do,” he says, carefully putting an arm around Tony. He presses himself into Stephen’s side and yawns, surprised with his lack of energy he had despite basically sleeping all day. “You should go to sleep,” Stephen tells him but Tony shakes his head.

“I basically slept all day,” he says, “I don’t need more sleep.”

“You meditated all day,” Stephen says, “and when magic is involved I can confirm that it’s tiring. Sleep,” he tells Tony. He wants to resist but it becomes increasingly clear that he won’t be able to keep his eyes open much longer. The last thing he remembers before he passes out is his head falling to Stephen’s chest.

*

When Tony wakes up some time later he’s still curled into Stephen’s side and Stephen is fast asleep, nose twitching in his dreams. It was absolutely adorable but Tony was too tired to watch for more than a few moments before he lays his head back on Stephen’s chest and falls back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact- I hate the word "chuckle" or any variation of it (ie chucked, chuckles) and _never_ use them in writing. I attribute this to Stephanie Meyer because I realized she grossly overused the word about halfway through Breaking Dawn for the fifth time (don't judge, we all like trash at some point). Regardless, whenever I see this Devil Word I physically cringe and actively change it to a synonym in my head because I straight can't handle seeing the damn word. You have no clue how much it killed me to write the Dreaded Word out three whole times.
> 
> If I were a Manic Pixie Dream Girl this would be one of my 'quirky' traits.


	13. Chapter 13

Wong thinks he’s being sneaky slipping extra books into Tony’s pile but he notices right away. It can’t be helped that he’s so fucking bored he actually decides to try the spells he found most interesting in the pages. Rhodey raises an eyebrow, “a levitation spell?” he asks skeptically. Someone hasn’t been watching Stephen teach his students, who were finally starting to improve. It helped that as soon as he finally saw improvement he actually started encouraging the students, which did wonders for their resolve to actually learn. Stephen had no idea why they were suddenly improving but Tony figured unintentionally teaching better still counted.

“Yeah, I’m getting good at it too,” Tony says, waving his hands in patterns in the air and tapping the design. It shakes for a moment before it moves through the book he had sitting on his lap, lifting it into the air. He grins at Rhodey, who looked more shocked than he should. “You’ve been at a magic school for like two and a half weeks, Rhodey, haven’t you checked Stephen’s magic out?” Tony asks as the book falls back into his lap. The spell was supposed to last way longer than that- Tony thinks a variation of this spell was used on Stephen’s cloak but ten times stronger obviously- but thanks to Tony’s beginner status it only lasted a few moments. It was still pretty cool though.

Rhodey rolls his eyes, “I have no faith in Stephen or Asian Hogwarts,” he says and Tony snorts, wincing as pain shoots through his ribs. “How much do you ignore that? Pain?” Rhodey asks.

He sighs, “obviously more than I should. I swear my ribs hurt more than they did three days ago. Stephen says I’m imagining things but I think he’s just being an ass. Guess getting a little relief and then having to go back to the regularly scheduled program sucks.”

“You shouldn’t do that,” Rhodey says and Tony waves him off.

“I’ve heard it all from Stephen, complete with all the medical risks of my adventures. I don’t need a lecture from you too,” he says. He wished he could get Stephen off his back that easy but he couldn’t given that he actually knew the real risks of Tony’s adventures. And he took great detail to explain all the ways in which Tony’s remaining injuries could have gone wrong, complete with all the cases he’s seen where said bad things have happened. Tony had to remind him that in a hospital he pretty much only saw the worst case scenario, which hadn’t done much but earn him another lecture.

“Still. I should have been paying more attention, no regular person can keep up with a hopped up team of super heroes, obviously you had to be ignoring injuries,” Rhodey says more to himself than Tony but he shakes his head.

“I can assure you with the utmost confidence that you wouldn’t have seen anything I didn’t want you to see. I think you forget sometimes how often I pretend to be all kinds of things I’m not for the benefit of others,” he says. It had gotten to a point, before Afghanistan, when he was so wrapped up in his own imitation of who he thought he needed to be that he accidentally became _Howard_.

If he ever had the opportunity to go back in time the first thing he’d do is visit himself at twenty five, punch himself in the face, and tell himself to get his fucking shit together. Granted that would change the course of everything but that couldn’t possibly end worse than Ultron. Once he left Afghanistan he left a lot of that behind but there were bits and pieces of his image that were useful to keep around so he did. Point was that Rhodey wasn’t any better at seeing past his walls than anyone else to no fault of his own. He was literally one of five people in Tony’s entire life that have even bothered to try and look past what he shows the world so in his defense he saw more than most.

Rhodey sighs. “I know you hide a lot, but I don’t get why. This lone wolf shit has never done you any good so why do you insist on doing everything on your own?” he asks softly.

A loud snort from the hallway interrupts whatever Tony was about to say. “Rhodes you’ve been with him his whole life basically and it hasn’t occurred to you that you’re one of three people in his life that he’s opened up to that hasn’t tried to kill him later? Come on, with odds like that you’d keep to yourself too,” Stephen says, walking in with an air of confidence. No, arrogance. It practically radiated off Stephen at near all times and Tony knew it annoyed the hell out of Rhodey. Sometimes it annoyed Tony too but Stephen was at least willing to listen to criticisms even if he whined and cried the whole time and sulked about it for three days afterwards. True arrogance meant he wouldn’t listen at all- Tony would know. He’s been there.

“I was the one who pointed that out to you when you whined and cried about me not having much faith in you,” Tony says and Rhodey rolls his eyes so hard Tony’s surprised they didn’t pop out of his sockets and exit the room.

“Well you made a point- one so obvious I don’t see why your best friend of twenty five years didn’t notice,” Stephen says, giving Rhodey a look down the end of his nose. Rhodey bristles immediately and Tony sighs.

“Could you two not? Why do you hate each other so much anyways?” he asks.

“He’s an arrogant prick!” Rhodey says.

“And you’re a sanctimonious do gooder with a complex,” Stephen says, rolling his eyes.

Tony sighs, deciding it was time to sort this now. “Okay you know what- Rhodey you dealt with me in my early twenties, there is _zero_ way Stephen is worse than me at that age. And Stephen, Rhodey might be annoyingly overprotective but he’s hardly a sanctimonious do gooder with a complex. Now stop fighting with each other, I find it annoying and since you’re going to have to deal with each other for as long as I’m alive I’d suggest you make peace with it now,” he tells them.

He swears to god he sees both Rhodey and Stephen consider murdering him to be rid of each other and he rolls his eyes at them. Unbelievable. “Rhodey started this,” Stephen says because of course he had to continue this argument.

“Stephen,” Tony says meaningfully, “I truly do not give two flying coots who started this, you’re both finishing this. Immediately,” he tells them.

“Stop being an arrogant ass,” Rhodey tells Stephen and Tony lets out a deep sigh, something that kind of hurt his ribs so he hopes Stephen and Rhodey knew they were causing him literal pain.

“That’s most of my personality,” Stephen points out.

“Sell your stupid ass cape and go buy yourself a better one then,” Rhodey tells him and Tony snorts, laughing a little and wincing, glaring at Rhodey for his efforts when his poor ribs give him more signals that he sucked as a person. He missed being so used to the dull ache in his ribs that he just ignored it.

“That cape is a priceless artifact!” Stephen says, offended.

“Stop,” Tony tells them both before Rhodey can respond. “Can you _please_ try to not hate each other for five fucking seconds? Your hatred is exhausting to me,” he tells them. He’s learned a thing or two in the last week from Wong. Mostly he has discovered the man was brilliant at manipulation though he only ever used it for the greater good. But Tony had nothing better to do but learn his tricks and so he figured he’d capitalize the only things Rhodey and Stephen had in common- they both loved him and neither wanted to cause him more problems. Telling them they were being a nuisance to his health was bound to get them to shut up and thankfully it worked.

“I still don’t like you,” Rhodey says after a few moments.

“The feeling is mutual,” Stephen tells him, back to looking at Rhodey down his nose.

“Seriously?” Tony asks. “Okay you know what since you apparently started it, Rhodey what is it about Stephen that _actually_ annoys you? Don’t tell me its his arrogance because we’ve established I was a fucking dumpster fire when I was younger and you dealt with that just fine. Stephen is _not_ worse than me at twenty five. Or thirty five for that matter. So what it is that bothers you so much?”

Rhodey looks between Tony and Stephen and throws his hands up, “you’re on _his_ side?”

“I’m on my own side, Team My Soul Mates Need To Stop Annoying Me. So what is it?” he asks.

“He’s jealous,” someone new adds and they all turn to find Hope standing in the doorway. Rhodey looks _betrayed_ and Tony squints at him.

“ _What_?” he asks, not sure how or even where this was coming from.

“Don’t look at me like that Rhodey, I’m tired of you complaining about Stephen too and if Tony is trying to solve the problem I’m here for it. So there it is, Rhodey is jealous because for the first time since Steve left you to die in Siberia you seem less dead inside and he thinks its due to Stephen’s presence in your life and he’s mad that someone he doesn’t like managed to fix you,” Hope tells him.

Tony squints some more because that was the most fucking ridiculous thing he has ever heard in his whole damn life and Steve has asked some _stupid_ questions. Like what happened to bananas. Nothing happened to bananas, they were bananas.

“Well, magic is healing,” Stephen says and Tony throws the nearest paperback at him.

“Stop being an arrogant prick,” he tells Stephen, who easily deflects the book with an annoyed flick of his wrist.

“Its not arrogant if its true,” Stephen tells him, nose pointed at the ceiling.

Tony rolls his eyes again, “okay since Stephen is intent on being an ass, Rhodey, what the fuck? First of all Stephen didn’t _fix_ me, I’m not fixed at all. I’m just… motivated I guess. And sure some of that is Stephen’s doing but Wong did more than he did,” he says and Stephen makes an offended noise. “Even if he did happen to magically cure me of all my problems- which he _hasn’t_ \- you’ve been my best friend since I was twelve. You’ve done _so_ much for me over the course of my life, more than I deserved a lot of the time, and it would be pretty easy for Stephen to wonder how he could possibly live up to that,” he points out. It was hard to hold a flame to a wild fire after all and if they were going point for point on who has helped Tony and been there for him more in life Rhodey has done more for Tony in the first year of knowing him than Stephen has in the entire time they’ve known each other. Granted that’s because they haven’t known each other long but still.

“He probably doesn’t worry about it because he’s an arrogant ass,” Rhodey mumbles.

Stephen rolls his eyes, “no you idiot, I don’t worry about it because I’m smart enough to know that I have different things to offer than Tony than you do. So you’ve been his main support system for the majority of his life, so what? I don’t intend to replace you; I want to have my own place in Tony’s life thank you. _Some_ of us are smart enough to know that affection is not a zero sum,” he tells Rhodey.

“Why is ninety eight percent of your personality a character flaw?” Tony asks, shaking his head at him. “Stop being a douche. That said he has a point about having different things to offer. I mean he’d never drop acid and watch Freddy Kruger with me,” he says, grinning.

Rhodey shakes his head, getting a haunted look on his face. “I never should have done that either,” he says.

“But you did. And you’ve probably gone along with way too many of my stupid ideas to make sure I don’t get killed or because you sort of also have a wild streak you hide well. Stephen has none of that, he’s too hung up on all the ways bungee jumping could end up with him dead,” he says.

“There are some serious risks, and who wants to hurtle themselves off a tall object anyways? That is _insane_ ,” Stephen says, waving a hand around.

“Who wants to dig around in people’s spines all day?” Rhodey counters.

“People with career ambitions, Rhodes,” Stephen says primly. Rhodey rolls his eyes but that was probably because he had his own career ambitions that involved sometimes jumping out of planes and flying around in high tech metal suits.

“Great, now that you both understand that you have different functions in my life Rhodey you can drop the jealousy and Stephen, you can drop being a giant prick,” Tony tells them, clapping his hands together.

“Make no mistake, just because I serve a different function doesn’t mean I’m not automatically better than you,” Stephen says to Rhodey. Hope and Tony exchange a _look_ , all but telepathically asking the other to murder Stephen. Tony debates on asking Wong to smother him in his sleep later.

*

Practice, Wong told him, made perfect but after a week of trying to get past that initial jolt Tony hadn’t gotten anything out of his meditation. At least until he decided to waste time and energy after Stephen and Rhodey’s spat. He never knew how long he was out but after the initial jolt he feels himself fall and hit the ground. Distantly he’s aware that he’s dead, which he thinks should be unnerving but it isn’t. Instead he feels a distinct air of calm fall over his brain, noting that he can see the stars, which are beautiful in an abstract, disconnected way. That’s when he hears the voice.

“I shall honor our agreement, Kree, if you bring me the orb. Return to me again empty handed and I will _bathe_ the star ways in your blood,” a deep, menacing voice says and Tony jolts back awake to find Stephen there hovering over him, used to this by now.

“More of nothing I suppose?” he asks and Tony shakes his head, finding that he was shaking all over. That’s about when Stephen looks closer and must notice how pale he is. “Tony?” he asks, kneeling down beside his bed. Tony does his best to keep his breathing even, slowly breathing in and letting the breath out just as slow but it was difficult and he was shaky. “Hey, shhh,” Stephen says softly, “I don’t know what you saw but I’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you, you know that,” he says.

So he did, but he had no idea how useful Stephen’s skills were against- he stops the line of thought, knowing it’ll do little more than make him panic more and he didn’t need that. Instead he closes his eyes and focuses on Stephen’s hands running through his hair because that was more pleasant than anything his mind was willing to conjure up at the moment. After a few long moments of letting the sensation of Stephen’s fingers through his hair and the soothing sound of his voice calm him a bit he sighs.

“I never want to do that again,” he says weakly.

“Are you alright?” Stephen asks softly.

Tony carefully sits up, thankful that his ribs didn’t hurt that much anymore. His shoulder still hurt though, but that was normal. “I don’t know,” he says honestly.

Stephen remains quiet for a few moments before he sighs. “I don’t want to aggravate your panic disorder at the moment but… what _did_ you see?” he asks.

See? Not much. It was what he heard that was the problem but as soon as Tony thinks about it he realizes that the snatch of a conversation he got was so out of context it was almost meaningless. That does a little in the way of helping his anxiety. Without context he didn’t know what the information meant and until he figured that out panic could wait. “I… heard someone. I was dead, or whomever I was listening through was dead, but I heard him anyways. Something about a deal with a Kree. The guy wanted some orb thing but I don’t know what that means and I barely even know what a Kree is let alone how this particular Kree fits into things.”

What the fuck was an orb in space villain terms? And if Tony could figure out a way to find out _which_ Kree the mysterious orb guy was talking about he knew a thing or two from some SHIELD files he stole and sifted through and he could probably find a Kree or two to swindle information out of. It wouldn’t be his first choice in the course of action he wanted to take but he’d do it if he needed to.

“That… makes no sense. No offense,” Stephen says but Tony shakes his head.

“No I agree with you. Guess the only way I’ll be able to figure it out is to do that mediation thing again,” he says but Stephen shakes head.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You should try working on that levitation spell- you’re still pitiful at it,” he tells Tony.

He glares at Stephen, “I’ve gotten good at that, thanks,” he says in his own defense.

Stephen gives him a pitying look that Tony totally resents. “Honey, you can barely keep a book in the air for a minute,” he says.

“Better than the slight shudder I got when I first tried it, that’s improvement,” Tony says.

Stephen pats his shoulder gently. “Sure,” he says, giving Tony a totally fake smile. Asshole.

*

It’s the middle of the night when Tony is shaken awake and he frowns, finding nothing around that would shake him. He almost lies back down to go back to sleep when he shakes again and Tony realizes the _building_ was shaking. For a moment he thinks there’s some kind of earthquake or something but those didn’t stop then start than stop again. Not like that anyways so he gets up to investigate, looking for some kind of explanation for the shaking when he spies the orange glow outside his window. He looks out but doesn’t see much. He didn’t need to in order to know that one of the people throwing orange designs around was Stephen and it didn’t look like this was a training exercise he was running with Wong.


	14. Chapter 14

Tony turns from the window and pauses for a moment, remembering Wong’s advice about listening to his instincts so he listens. His first instinct was to run to Stephen, who clearly needed help but there was something beyond his emotional reaction so he considers it. Downstairs, he had to go downstairs to… he’d figure that out along the way.

When he exits his room he’s surprised to find Hope there half in her Wasp suit, “what the fuck is going on?” she asks as she follows Tony to the stairs.

“No idea but- where’s Rhodey?” he asks, noticing his missing soul mate.

“Safe. I locked him in our room,” Hope tells him.

“ _Hope_!” Tony says, “what the hell?”

“He wasn’t going to stay- where are you going?” she asks, following him as he turns on his heel and heads towards their room down the hall.

“He’s not going to stay in there quietly, might as well give him a job,” he says as he reaches their door. Hope opens her mouth to say something but Tony cuts her off, “Rhodey get away from the door, I’m going to open it,” he tells Rhodey, who was trying his best to bust the lock on the knob if that shaking was any indication. The knob stops moving and Tony unlocks the door after Hope grudgingly hands over the key.

“I am _so_ pissed off at-” Rhodey starts, glaring at Hope but Tony cuts him off.

“Get everyone to the far side of the building,” Tony tells him. “They should be relatively safe there and if something happens, well, I trust you to come up with something on the fly,” he says. Hope gives him a look that is downright poisonous but he ignores it as Rhodey nods, wheeling off to complete his new task. As soon as he’s out of ear shot Tony turns to Hope, “and _that’s_ how you get him to evacuate the building without him giving you trouble and trying to bust down a door. Lets go,” he says and he starts back towards the stairs. Rhodey’s routes were out of the way thanks to the wheelchair and that would be useful now- if he and the rest of Stephen’s students weren’t on the usual paths that made them harder to find, half of why he thought to get Rhodey to get everyone out to begin with.

“That’s genius,” Hope mumbles grudgingly, following him down the stairs. When they get to the bottom Tony pauses, looking around for a moment before he starts towards a door he’s never gone through before, earning a frown from Hope, who no doubt knew they weren’t headed for the action now. “Where are you going?” she asks.

He shrugs, “not sure. You might as well head out, I’ll be there in a minute,” he tells her.

Hope pauses though before following him, “Tony you have no suit or any other protection, I know you’re not good at magic because Stephen looks constipated whenever you try spells, and you’re injured. What the hell are you going to do?” she asks as Tony spies a staff looking thing across the room.

“Do you see that?” he asks, gesturing to it.

“See what? That staff thing? What about it?” she asks.

“Does it look like it has a spotlight on it to you?” he asks and Hope looks at him like he’s nuts.

“Do you smell burnt toast?” she asks as he starts towards it, confident this was the right decision.

“I’m not having a stroke,” he tells her, stopping in front of the display case with the odd looking staff in it. It was probably as tall as Stephen and covered in odd carvings in what looked like metal but Tony was pretty sure that thing wasn’t originally from this planet. Not his ideal weapon but something drew him to it so it was probably useful. Maybe.

“Seizure,” Hope corrects and Tony rolls his eyes, opening the display case and pausing for a moment before he reaches out, grabbing the staff.

The last thing he expects is to feel his whole body turn electric as fire burns through his mind. Fire in Afghanistan, fire in New York, Sakovia, London, Siberia, his father’s basement- with a sharp gasp he snaps out of it, his head swimming.

“What the fuck is that?” Hope asks as images in destruction and death flicker through Tony’s mind but he shakes it off, having seen it all before.

“Not sure but I don’t like it. Lets go,” he tells her, taking off towards the door.

*

Stephen knew Mordo was likely planning an attack in the middle of the night and he was still caught off guard. It was one of the spells he set up around the perimeter that tipped him off, waking him up with a start as he frowns for a moment, confused. It doesn’t take him long to catch up with his confusion and he runs, his cloak flying after him and attaching itself to his shoulders as he heads towards the stairs. Wong pokes his head out of his room a Stephen runs by, “Mordo!” he yells in place of an explanation before deciding the stairs were for idiots and just jumping over the railing, letting the cape catch him before he hit the ground.

After that things go fast. Mordo was more experienced with magic and pissed off too, which didn’t leave time for Stephen to do much thinking. Distantly he hopes that he didn’t make a mistake leaving Christine in New York but he hardly gets an opportunity to ask Mordo if he decided to use her as a pawn again because he was blasting Stephen with magic.

It isn’t until he senses someone in the artifact room that things change from Stephen trying to hold Mordo off to him frowning, letting his guard down for a half a second and getting blasted across the court yard for his efforts. His cape catches him and Stephen has to shake his head to focus, squinting down at Mordo, who didn’t look injured at all much to his annoyance. Mordo smiles up at him as Stephen feels blood drip down his face. Fantastic, he probably had a concussion now.

The pause between Mordo’s next attack and Stephen holding his hands up with magical shields as a defense was maybe a few seconds if that. Mordo was already moving back into a fighting stance when he goes _flying_. Stephen watches as he lands some twenty five feet away in shock, settling himself on the ground and taking the opportunity to touch his head. Swollen above his eye but that was good. Better the swelling show on the surface than underneath- that would be much worse for his health. Something buzzes past his face and he frowns as he disappears.

“Stephen,” someone says. “ _Stephen_!” the person yells and he turns to find Tony standing there.

“Would you get back to your room!” he snaps, looking back towards the building for a half a second before he decides planting himself in front of Tony was better protection at the moment.

“Stephen are you alright?” Tony asks him. He hears it distantly, which probably wasn’t good but he ignores it for the moment.

“Peachy. Get back to your room,” he tells Tony. Mordo was standing again, but he wasn’t attacking Stephen, he was attacking… well something but Stephen couldn’t see it.

“Its Hope, she’s in the Wasp costume and probably shrinky,” Tony tells him. “Where is Wong?” he asks.

Stephen shrugs, “not sure, probably trying to evacuate people,” he says. Stephen was the stronger magic user and he was clever. Wong probably trusted him enough to hold Mordo off long enough to make sure everyone was safe, then he’d come to help. Given his current fuzzy state of mind Stephen had to wonder if that was the right call.

“You need to lay down or something,” Tony tells him.

“Can’t, we have problems,” Stephen says, gesturing to Mordo. Hope, wherever she was, must have been blasted out of commission because Mordo turns back to him and Tony. Stephen notices Tony had stepped out from behind him and moves to stand in front of him again before focusing his attention on Mordo. He was stalking forward with purpose but Stephen wasn’t about to let him into that Sanctum- that would happen over his dead body. Literally.

“Stephen, you have a head injury now get out of my way,” Tony says, side stepping him and stalking towards Mordo. He wastes no time in sending a magical attack Tony’s way given that he had to know Tony had no way of protecting himself against it and Stephen opens his mouth to yell but his cape flies off his shoulders and goes to Tony. Stephen promptly falls on his ass, unaware that the cape had been holding him up. He touches the wound on his head again and wonders if there was more damage than he could currently feel because this was peculiar. He doesn’t take long to consider it before he’s scrambling to his feet, trying to figure out what to do next. Tony was doing a decent job dodging Mordo’s attacks and Stephen distantly recognizes the fighting style from videos he’s watched of the Avengers, noting that Tony clearly didn’t rely on his suit before something occurs to him.

Mordo had taught him hand to hand combat because he couldn’t always rely on his magic or the cape not that it had chose him in that moment but it was a lesson he had briefly forgotten. Mordo wasn’t necessarily a better magic user, but his experience and anger made him more dangerous than Stephen. Beating him was possible, but given his high body count it was improbable. He needed to stop relying on the tools he usually used and make use of a new one like Tony was doing now.

Out of seemingly nowhere Mordo is lifted from the ground and thrown and Stephen assumes Hope was back before he turns and runs back into the Sanctum, barely managing to not run straight into the wall instead of through the door. He passes Wong on his way by and yells at him to get outside as he goes into the artifact room. There had to be something in here, something useful…

*

“How are you doing that?” Mordo asks Tony as he dodges another attack. The cape, when it chose to work with him instead of sending him flying all over the place, was useful in combat.

“How am I doing what?” he asks, trying to take a swipe at Mordo with the staff and missing. Damnit.

“The staff, no one can hold that staff!” Mordo yells at him, sending another magical blast right at him and Tony flinches, letting the cape block that because he had no idea how to deflect anything at this point.

“Well clearly you’re wrong because I’m holding it,” Tony says, getting an inkling of an idea as he allows the cape to pull him back from another attack. His evasion technique was irritating Mordo, he could see it, but it’s Hope buzzing past his ear and into Mordo, sending him flying backwards again that gives Tony some semblance of hope for winning this fight. Evasion would only work for so long and he was working on luck alone. The fact that he wasn’t dead yet was nothing short of a fucking miracle.

Waving his hands around Mordo was once again distracted by Hope, who easily evaded him swatting at her. Why this was always everyone’s first response, his own included, he had no idea. It wasn’t as if she was an actual insect so why swat at her like that would help? He shakes his head to clear it and looks at the staff for a long moment and then at Mordo. He had one shot at this and he had to do it fast while he was still distracted by Hope.

Okay. Time to concentrate. He breathes in slowly and breathes out, a brief image of Sakovia flickering in his mind. He wouldn’t fail this time. Taking a step back from the staff he quickly draws patterns in the air and taps the center of the design, sending it towards the staff. It lifts off the ground and Tony holds his hands steady, doing his best to control the spell but he could already feel it slipping. He grits his teeth and concentrates on the magic, holding on to what was left and he moves his hands, pleased when the staff lifts.

His control was slipping still but he continues to lift the staff and then he pulls it back once it was close to Mordo before he swings it, his control dropping as soon as the staff followed through on the swing. Both the staff and the man go flying and Tony drops to his knees, gasping for breath. Without the staff in his hand his shoulder burned and he winces, not looking forward to the lecture this was going to get him from Stephen. Hope appears at his side, kneeling down beside him. “Oh my god Tony are you okay?” he asks. He must look like some shit if she was asking.

“I think so,” he says slowly, sounding distant to his own ears. Or maybe not. He’d see later he supposed, when Stephen inevitably harassed him into checking out his wounds. Out of the corner of his eye he sees orangs sparks flying around and notes distantly that Wong was on the scene, thankfully. Tony had to hand it to this Mordo guy- he was fucking _talented_ to go through so many people in such a short period of time. Though in Hope’s defense she didn’t look hurt, just concerned about Tony.

She looks over her shoulder and back at Tony, “go,” he tells her, “I’ll figure it out, I always do. Worst come to worst this cape saved my life once, I’m sure it can do it again.” Putting his life into the hands of some magical cloth. Unbelievable. Hope goes though, shrinking as she takes off into the air. He wondered if she knew she preferred fighting small or if she had some other reason for preferring not to remain human sized. Or giant sized like Lang did that one time.

Tony stands up, shaky on his feet but the cape steadies him some, just in time to see Stephen run out of the Sanctum in a zigzag that didn’t look intentional. “Go to him,” he tells the cape. It doesn’t move and Tony sighs, “damnit he’s about to run back into that fight, go to him I’ll figure it out!” he yells at it. The cape detaches itself from Tony’s shoulders and floats in front of him while he swayed a little. It stays there for a moment before he flutters off to attach itself to Stephen, who follows a much more direct path after that. Tony gets the feeling that the cape, in its weird cape way, just thanked him. He shakes his head and sighs, headed back towards the fallen staff.

He’s about to pick it up when Wong lets out a blast of magic that stuns Mordo for a moment- just long enough for Stephen to slip something over his head. Mordo whirls, magical shields flickering but going out fast not that it stops him for more than a half a second before he tries to just fucking _deck_ Stephen. Tony wanted to know who supplied villains their super strength and he wanted to know if there was a supplier for heroes because this was fucking ridiculous.

Stephen ducks fast though, or more likely the cape does it for him, but when Stephen comes back up he slams his hand into Mordo’s throat, causing him to collapse immediately. Stephen falls down after this too, or he would have if the cape didn’t catch him and gently lower him to the ground. Tony decides that’s a good time to pass out and does so, likely landing on his face as he does so.

*

Rhodey doesn’t even realized he’s been duped until he’s in another Sanctum somewhere he didn’t pay attention to because he was too busy helping Wong evacuate people. He didn’t even think that he was going with them; his concern was making sure the people were safe. But then Wong closed one of those nifty portal things and he realized he was now stuck, at the very least, a country or two away and was no help to anyone and he could damn well guarantee this was what Tony planned.

Hope wasn’t good at subtly when it came to trying to keep him safe, but Tony was a master at it. How that ended up being the case he had no idea- on any given day Hope was the one who knew how to be subtle while Tony was as subtle as a sting ray on a coffee table but here he was, locked in some other random location with no way of helping Tony or Hope.

He was going to chew them out _good_ when Wong and Stephen came and got them back.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, bois! I didn't feel like waiting so I chose to post the last chapter now :)

Stephen’s head hurt but he knew he was going to be fine- he knew the results of Christine’s tests of his health before she did, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take full advantage of Tony’s sudden attachment to his side. Rhodey saw through his act easily enough and was clearly annoyed with him for feigning being more injured than he was but Stephen left him to stew in it. And to stew in being outsmarted by Tony when he evacuated with everyone else- a genius move that made Stephen laugh pretty hard when Tony told him about his plan. Rhodey spent a full day whining about traitorous soul mates before he went back to his regularly scheduled sulking about Tony paying attention to Stephen.

He preens under the attention because he’s always liked being the center of someone’s affections and rarely was. The exception was when his medical practices were being praised, which was why he loved all those dinners Christine apparently hated. For now though he reveled in Tony curled into his side reading a book and looking increasingly annoyed.

“What is it that’s got you so upset?” he asks, pressing a kiss to the top of Tony’s head.

Tony shifts and looks up at him, giving him a lopsided smile. “Magic is stupid, as usual. This is about some kind of symbolism in prophetic dreams and honestly it sounds more like bullshit than astrology and regular dream interpretation,” he says.

Ah of course, Tony just _had_ to get a daily dig in at magic. But Stephen had to agree with him there. “Sounds like Freudian methods of psychoanalysis where everything means something, including the lack of certain images too. That, at least to me, sounds like people trying to hard to find meaning where there very well isn’t one,” he says.

“Exactly. So this entire thing is basically garbage, but it _did_ tell me that weird sex dream I had about you two nights ago meant that you’re going to get eaten by cannibals while I adventure the seas in search of a pelican so there’s that,” he says and Stephen frowns.

“How was the sex dream weird?” he asks, offended.

Tony rolls his eyes, “that was literally the least exciting thing I just said and if you _must_ know there was too many medical instruments involved for that to be anything less than bizarre. If my brain could stick to normal sex dreams with no stirrups and clamps I’d be eternally grateful,” he says. Stephen wrinkles his nose, trying to figure out how the hell Tony’s brain came up with that and how sex factored in. “Don’t give me that look, you asked and I was the one who had to dream it. If anyone has the right to be creeped out its me,” he points out.

“Well I hope that pelican avenges my death at the hands of the cannibals at least. Did you know people have medical kinks? I didn’t and you don’t want the story of how I found out,” he says. As it turned out Tony very much _did_ want that story for some reason. He refuses to tell Tony for a good forty-five minutes before he finally gives in and tells Tony the sordid tale because Tony was quite good at being the most irritating person on the planet. That and he figured if he had to live with that story someone else had to too. It was safe to say that by the end of it Tony regretted his decision, which makes Stephen feel better about losing forty five minutes of his life to listening to Tony whine _Steeeeephhhheeeen_ over and over again until he got what he wanted. Be careful what you wish for was a lesson that came to mind in this situation, not that Tony seemed the type to ever heed that kind of warning.

*

To say Tony didn’t like that meditation thing was an understatement but it was a necessary evil if he wanted to figure out what was going on. The last time he had tried this all he got was a single phrase- _to challenge them is to court death_. Who ‘them’ was he wasn’t sure- but he was certain an alien was saying it so he presumed it was about the Avengers. This time though he can feel that it’s different. The air around him is cold and sterile almost, and it remains that way for a few moments before he hears a soft buzzing and the sound of air releasing.

It takes a few moments but the room he’s in gets brighter and he watches as bars pull away, and then another set pulls away, until finally the last set of bars goes. Light floods into the room and shines on a metal object in the center of what looked like a vault. Tony frowns and looks at the object- some kind of gold… gauntlet- and tries to figure out what was important about it but there wasn’t anything striking about the gauntlet aside from the material it was made of.

Its not until he hears the voice that he understands. “Fine,” a deep, commanding voice says and Tony watches a purple arm reach into the vault, hand slipping into the gauntlet. “I’ll do it myself.”

He sits up with a start; nearly smacking his head into Stephen’s along the way and he shudders. “Are you okay?” Stephen says, immediately concerned.

Tony leans forward and lets himself breathe for a few moments before he talks. He found this was helpful to recover a little bit before he relayed whatever it was he saw. “I… don’t know who he is, or what exactly he’s after, but I know he’s on his way here. With a gauntlet,” he adds. Put like that the information didn’t make sense but Tony knew bone deep that he was right and something big was about to happen. Something big _already_ happened. It was just a matter of time before it got here.

“What do you mean?” Stephen asks softly. Stephen-Speak for ‘Tony, you’re not making sense’- anyone else would have gotten his usual response and with a snotty dismissive tone at that. But Stephen valued him more than he valued near everyone else so he got the benefit of patience.

“The… alien. He’s important, I know that, and I know he’s coming here but- look, its hard to describe the unshakable feeling of dread in my stomach. I don’t know what that gauntlet was but it must be some kind of weapon. And he’s sent people here before- he said this time he’d do it himself. Which leads me to believe it wasn’t Loki behind the Chitauri invasion, it was this guy. Which means we’re in deeper shit than we thought,” he says. _Shit_. It had only occurred to him as he said it that Loki couldn’t be behind the invasion if this guy was gung ho for fucking earth over himself but if that was true, and Tony could feel that it was, than they’ve been misinterpreting signs for _years_. This was so not good.

Stephen sits back on his heels, “I’ll tell Wong,” he says softly, “and he’ll inform the others.” He allows himself a few seconds of shock, looking pale, before he stands and walks off. Tony hoped that without Mordo killing off all the magic users they might actually be useful in defense of whatever was coming but he had his doubts. At least for a moment.

*

That Mordo is surprised to find Tony outside his cell is apparent immediately, but he doesn’t say anything. Stephen had made some kind of cell out of magic that Mordo couldn’t cross and thanks to some magical artifact Stephen had used to neutralize Mordo’s magic he also had the time to do some other spells to lock Mordo’s magic away from him in a more permanent way. According to Stephen he couldn’t strip him of it entirely without risking killing him and since Stephen erred on the side of pacifism he opted out of that option. Personally Tony saw no real loss should Mordo die but he doesn’t tell Stephen that because he didn’t want to start a fight.

“You have a mission to restore the natural order,” Tony states more than asks but Mordo takes it as a question anyways, giving Tony what technically counted as an answer.

“The world would be safer without people like you in it,” he says.

He shrugs, “I don’t disagree. Funny thing is that the world would be safer without you in it too. I find it a little hypocritical that a guy who’s obsessed with a natural order would choose to murder several people in cold blood- seems a bit contradictory but that’s me. Point is, how far are you willing to go, exactly?” he asks, squinting at him, head tilted to the side as he examines Mordo.

Mordo clearly takes this as a ridiculous question, “you’ve already seen how far I’m willing to go. I could give you another demonstration if you take down this magical barrier,” he says, offering Tony a cocky smile that seemed more like Stephen than him.

Tony rolls his eyes, deciding Mordo and villain banter didn’t go together. “You’re right, I know that when the time comes you’ll fight on the right side. You’ll die on it too,” he says with more certainty than he should have but by now he was beginning to sense when he was right about things. He was more right about this than he’s been right about most other things aside from aliens coming to earth. He turns to walk away but Mordo calls him back.

“The Berserker Staff- how did you hold it?” he asks.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he says. Just that Stephen and Wong were terrified of the staff- an Asguardian artifact apparently- and they made him go pick it up. Tony was sure Wong’s motivation for that was fear, but he could see the curiosity clear on Stephen’s features. He might be frightened of the staff, but he wasn’t so frightened he had lost curiosity about how it worked and who could wield it. Wong was certain that the object chose him somehow but advised him against using it much. He also refused to give Tony information on it, odd for the librarian, but his insistence on not using it was a good place to look for blame.

“That staff makes the user see their most unpleasant memories- it brings out the darkest in people, throwing it into the light. It gives the user an adrenaline rush and super strength fueled by your worst, usually hate filled, memories. Humans who use it go insane, and Asguardians who use it have gone through a lot of trouble hiding it from ever being used again. How is it possible that you held it with no apparent affects?” Mordo asks, frowning at Tony as he steps closer to the edge of his magical cell. The orange shimmer around his space lets out a few sparks, warning him away but he doesn’t go.

Tony thinks about it for a moment and shrugs, “the staff didn’t show me anything I didn’t already show myself every day. You say it makes people hateful, that it drives them insane? Well I noticed no difference except the adrenaline rush,” he says. He leaves Mordo with that, leaving the room and nearly running into Stephen on his way out. It’s clear he heard at least the last bit of that conversation.

“I don’t believe that, you’re not a hateful person. I’d know- I am one,” he says but Tony smiles cruelly.

“The hate wasn’t directed outward, Stephen.”

*

Standing on a box Tony is annoyed to find that he’s still three inches shorter than Stephen, who laughs at him. He flips him off because this was some kind of tall person magic and he was offended by it.

“Honestly standing side by side like that you two don’t even look like the same species,” Hope tells him and Tony makes an offended noise, flipping her off too.

“That is just _rude_!” he says in his own defense.

Rhodey throws his head back and laughs, a surprising reaction considering Stephen was involved but Tony would take this over his petty rivalry with Stephen. “He’s like a tea cup human!” he wheezes out and, much to Tony’s surprise and utmost betrayal, Stephen bursts out laughing.

“Oh you’re so right,” he says, doubling over. Tony hopes that they go back to hating each other _immediately_ because this was unacceptable. He looks to Hope for some kind of help but she looks away, _abandoning_ him in this short person oppression.

He steps off his box, prepared to tell Stephen exactly where he could stick his tallness when something in his gut twists and he knows something has changed. Whatever the look on his face was it must have been something to see because Rhodey and Stephen stop laughing immediately and Hope steps in closer. “Are you okay?” she asks but he shakes his head.

“Something just happened,” he says. “In New York.” As if on cue his phone starts buzzing in his back pocket and he takes it out, frowning at Peter’s number before answering it.

“Oh um hey, hi Mr. Stark. Uh… I don’t know where you are but you need to get back to New York because there’s um-” Peter stutters but Tony cuts him off.

“An alien ship,” he finishes and Peter lets out a nervous laugh.

“People are kind of freaking out. I’m kind of freaking out,” he adds and Tony feels a pang of pity for the child.

“Listen kid, just make sure you’re safe, and get people the hell away from that thing. I’ll be there soon,” he says and he hangs up, trusting that Peter could follow the instructions. Hope, Stephen, and Rhodey look at him in dead silence, all of them paler than normal. “Suit up, Thanos is here,” he tells them.

Rhodey frowns, “Thanos?” he asks but his guess was as good at Tony’s. All he knew was that unshakable feeling in his gut, the one that told him he was right.

“Hope, now isn’t the time to argue. Show Rhodey the modified suit and Stephen, you might want to tell everyone in that magical network of yours that some crazy shit is about to go down in America. Again,” he says.

“Modified suit?” Rhodey asks and Hope sighs.

“To work with your legs. Lets hope Tony worked out the problems and that you’re a fast enough learner to not die while you’re testing things out,” she says. “Come on.” With that they both leave and Stephen steps closer to Tony.

“Are you sure?” he asks but Tony doesn’t answer. Instead he leans up and kisses Stephen because he knew two things were about to happen for sure.

One, the world as they knew it was about to be irrevocably changed.

Two, he wasn’t going to make it out of this alive.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)
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> Fun Fact: If I lived in this universe the names my soul mate would have (that I can remember) are: MJ, Mercedes, Steve, Bean, Marsi, Cades, and Winter.


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